Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics

Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics was the thirteenth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It included the sport of basketball's men's and women's competitions of the 1992 Summer Olympics. The games were played at the Pavelló Olímpic de Badalona. 12 men's teams and 8 women's teams participated in the tournament.

13th Olympic Basketball Tournament
Barcelona 1992
Tournament details
Olympics	1992 Summer Olympics
Host nation	Spain
City	Barcelona
Duration	July 26 – August 8
Men's tournament
Teams	12
Medals Gold medalists  United States Silver medalists  Croatia Bronze medalists  Lithuania
Women's tournament
Teams	8
Medals Gold medalists  CIS Silver medalists  China Bronze medalists  United States
Tournaments
← Seoul 1988  Atlanta 1996 →

This was the first time that NBA players were eligible to play in Summer Olympics basketball, following a decision of FIBA in April 1989. Until 1992, only amateurs and players from professional leagues other than the NBA were allowed to play.[1]

The United States men's team, which was nicknamed "The Dream Team", won the gold medal by beating Croatia in the men's final, with Lithuania winning the bronze medal.

The Unified Team, representing the Commonwealth of Independent States, of the recently defunct Soviet Union, won the women's tournament, with China as runner-up. The United States women's team won the bronze medal after losing to the CIS in the semifinal, suffering their third and last defeat to date in the Olympic basketball history.

Medal summary

See also: List of Olympic medalists in basketball

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's	United States (USA) Christian Laettner David Robinson Patrick Ewing Larry Bird Scottie Pippen Michael Jordan Clyde Drexler Karl Malone John Stockton Chris Mullin Charles Barkley Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Jr.	Croatia (CRO) Dražen Petrović Velimir Perasović Danko Cvjetičanin Toni Kukoč Vladan Alanović Franjo Arapović Žan Tabak Stojko Vranković Alan Gregov Arijan Komazec Dino Rađa Aramis Naglić	Lithuania (LTU) Valdemaras Chomičius Alvydas Pazdrazdis Arūnas Visockas Darius Dimavičius Romanas Brazdauskis Gintaras Krapikas Rimas Kurtinaitis Arvydas Sabonis Artūras Karnišovas Šarūnas Marčiulionis Gintaras Einikis Sergėjus Jovaiša
Women's	Unified Team (EUN) Yelena Zhirko Yelena Baranova Irina Guerlits Yelena Tornikidu Yelena Shvaybovich Marina Tkachenko Irina Minkh Yelena Khudashova Irina Soumnikova Elen Bounatiants Natalia Zasulskaya Svetlana Zaboluyeva	China (CHN) Cong Xuedi He Jun Li Dongmei Li Xin Liu Jun Liu Qing Peng Ping Wang Fang Zhan Shuping Zheng Dongmei Zheng Haixia	United States (USA) Teresa Edwards Daedra Charles Clarissa Davis Teresa Weatherspoon Tammy Jackson Vickie Orr Victoria Bullett Carolyn Jones Katrina Felicia McClain Medina Dixon Cynthia Cooper Suzanne McConnell

Qualification

An NOC may enter up to one men's team with 12 players and up to one women's team with 12 players. For the men's tournament, the host country qualified automatically, as did the winners of the continental championships held for Asia, Oceania, Africa and the Americas, plus the runner-up, third and fourth place from the Americas competitions. A special qualifying tournament was held for European teams to allocate four extra berths.[2] For the women's tournament, the top four teams from the 1990 FIBA World Championship and the top four teams from a qualifying tournament held months prior to the competition were given a place in the Olympics.

Men

Africa	Americas	Asia	Europe	Oceania	Automatic qualifiers
Angola	United States  Venezuela  Brazil  Puerto Rico	China	Lithuania  Croatia  CIS  Germany	Australia	Spain – Olympic hosts

Women

Americas	Asia	Europe	Automatic qualifiers
United States  Cuba  Brazil	China	Italy^[a]  CIS  Czechoslovakia	Spain – Olympic hosts

• ^a Replaced Yugoslavia.

Format

Men's tournament:

• Two groups of six teams are formed, where the top four from each group advance to the knockout stage.
• Fifth and sixth places from each group form an additional bracket to decide 9th through 12th places in the final ranking.
• In the quarterfinals, the pairings are as follows: A1 vs. B4, A2 vs. B3, A3 vs. B2 and A4 vs. B1.
  • The four teams eliminated from the quarterfinals form an additional bracket to decide 5th through 8th places in the final ranking.
• The winning teams from the quarterfinals meet in the semifinals.
• The winning teams from the semifinals contest the gold medal. The losing teams contest the bronze.

Women's tournament:

• Two groups of four teams are formed, where the top two from each group advance to the knockout stage.
• Third and fourth places from each group form an additional bracket to decide 5th–8th places in the final ranking.
• The winning teams from the semifinals contest the gold medal. The losing teams contest the bronze.

Tie-breaking criteria:

1. Head to head results

Men's tournament

Main article: Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament

Preliminary round

The top four places in each of the preliminary round groups advanced to the eight team, single-elimination knockout stage, where Group A teams would meet Group B teams. The United States' Dream Team asserted their dominance by advancing to the next round undefeated and winning their five preliminary games by an average margin of almost 46 points. The only teams representing Asia and Africa, China and Angola respectively couldn't advance and ended up competing for ninth place with Venezuela and host nation Spain.

Group A

Qualified for the quarterfinals

Team	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Tie
United States	5	0	579	350	+229	10
Croatia	4	1	423	400	+23	9
Brazil	2	3	420	463	−43	7	1–0
Germany	2	3	369	432	−63	7	0–1
Angola	1	4	324	392	−68	6	1–0
Spain	1	4	398	476	−78	6	0–1

Group B

Qualified for the quarterfinals

Team	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Tie
CIS	4	1	425	373	+52	9	1–0
Lithuania	4	1	481	424	+57	9	0–1
Australia	3	2	432	396	+36	8	1–0
Puerto Rico	3	2	445	440	+15	8	0–1
Venezuela	1	4	392	427	−35	6
China	0	5	381	496	−115	5

Knockout stage

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Gold medal game

A1

United States

115

B4

Puerto Rico

77

A1

United States

127

B2

Lithuania

76

B2

Lithuania

114

A3

Brazil

96

A1

United States

117

A2

Croatia

85

B1

CIS

83

A4

Germany

76

B1

CIS

74

Bronze medal game

A2

Croatia

75

A2

Croatia

98

B1

CIS

78

B3

Australia

65

B2

Lithuania

82

Women's tournament

Main article: Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament

Preliminary round

The best two teams from each group advanced to the semifinals. The United States and Cuba advanced undefeated through the group phase but couldn't reach the finals and ended up facing each other for the bronze medal instead.

Group A

Qualified for the semifinals

Team	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
Cuba	3	0	246	230	+16	6
CIS	2	1	244	222	+22	5
Brazil	1	2	237	241	−4	4
Italy	0	3	190	224	−34	3

Group B

Qualified for the semifinals

Team	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
United States	3	0	318	181	+137	6
China	2	1	205	226	−21	5
Spain	1	2	181	238	−57	4
Czechoslovakia	0	3	183	242	−59	3

Knockout stage

	Semifinals					Final
	B1	United States	73
	A2	CIS	79
						A2	CIS	76
						B2	China	66
	A1	Cuba	70
	B2	China	109			Third Place Game
						B1	United States	88
						A1	Cuba	74

Final standings

Rank	Men			Women
	Team	W	L	Team	W	L
	United States	8	0	CIS	4	1
	Croatia	6	2	China	3	2
	Lithuania	6	2	United States	4	1
4th	CIS	5	3	Cuba	3	2
Eliminated at the quarterfinals				Eliminated at the preliminary round
5th	Brazil	4	4	Spain	3	2
6th	Australia	4	4	Czechoslovakia	1	4
7th	Germany	3	5	Brazil	2	3
8th	Puerto Rico	3	5	Italy	0	5
Eliminated at the preliminary round
9th	Spain	3	4
10th	Angola	2	5
11th	Venezuela	2	5
12th	China	0	7

See also

• "The Dream Team"

References

1. Jan Hubbard. "Why Can Pros Compete in International Events?". USA Basketball. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
2. 1992 European Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men, FIBA Archive. Accessed March 31, 2012.

External links

• Official Olympic Report