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. 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. The United States men's team, which was nicknamed "The Dream Team", won the gold medal in the men's tournament by beating Croatia in the men's final, with Lithuania winning the bronze medal. A documentary film, The Other Dream Team, covered the progress of the Lithuanian team. 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. The men's top scorer was Oscar Schmidt with 198 points in 8 games, with an average of 24.7 points, and Drazen Petrovic was second with 187 points in 7 games, with an average of 26.7 points.

Medal summary

Qualification

A 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. For the women's tournament, the host team qualified automatically, as did the top three teams from the 1990 FIBA World Championship. A qualifying tournament was held to allocate four extra berths. Yugoslavia was replaced by Italy (the fifth place team from the qualifying tournament) after it was excluded from the Olympic tournament.

Men

Women

Format

Men's tournament: Women's tournament: Tie-breaking criteria:

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.

Group A

DAY 1 USA 116-48 Angola Croatia 96-73 Brazil Germany 83-74 Spain Day 2 USA 103-70 Croatia Spain 101-100 Brazil Germany 64-63 Angola Day 3 USA 111-68 Germany Croatia 88-79 Spain Angola 66-76 Brazil Day 4 USA 127-83 Brazil Croatia 98-74 Germany Spain 63-83 Angola Day 5 USA 122-81 Spain Croatia 73-64 Angola Germany 76-85 Brazil

Group B

Day 1 CIS 78-64 Venezuela Lithuania 112-75 China Puerto Rico 76-116 Australia Day 2 CIS 85-63 Australia Puerto Rico 100-68 China Venezuela 79-87 Lithuania Day 3 CIS 100-84 China Australia 78-71 Venezuela Lithuania 104-91 Puerto Rico. Day 4 CIS 92-80 Lithuania Australia 88-66 China Puerto Rico 96-82 Venezuela Day 5 CIS 70-82 Puerto Rico Venezuela 96-88 China Lithuania 98-87 Australia

Knockout stage

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

Day 1 Cuba 91-89 CIS Brazil 85-70 Italy Day 2 CIS 77-67 Italy Cuba 95-87 Brazil Day 3 CIS 76-64 Brazil Cuba 60-53 Italy

Group B

Day 1 USA 111-55 Czechoslovakia China 66-63 Spain Day 2 Spain 59-58 Czechoslovakia USA 93-61 China Day 3 China 72-70 Czechoslovakia USA 114-58 Spain

Knockout stage

Final standings