Basketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
14th Olympic Basketball Tournament
Atlanta 1996
Tournament details
Olympics1996 Summer Olympics
Host nationUnited States
CityAtlanta
DurationJuly 20 – August 4
Men's tournament
Teams12
Medals
1 Gold medalists  United States
2 Silver medalists Serbia
3 Bronze medalists  Lithuania
Women's tournament
Teams12
Medals
1 Gold medalists  United States
2 Silver medalists Brazil
3 Bronze medalists  Australia
Tournaments
← Barcelona 1992  Sydney 2000 →

Basketball contests at the 1996 Olympic Games was the fourteenth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It held from July 20 to August 4, 1996. Games took place in the Morehouse College Gymnasium and in the Georgia Dome.

Medalists

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's
details
 United States (USA)
Charles Barkley
Penny Hardaway
Grant Hill
Hakeem Olajuwon
Karl Malone
Reggie Miller
Shaquille O'Neal
Gary Payton
Scottie Pippen
Mitch Richmond
David Robinson
John Stockton
 
 Lithuania (LTU)
Arvydas Sabonis
Rimas Kurtinaitis
Darius Lukminas
Saulius Štombergas
Eurelijus Žukauskas
Šarūnas Marčiulionis
Mindaugas Žukauskas
Gintaras Einikis
Artūras Karnišovas
Rytis Vaišvila
Tomas Pačėsas
Women's
details
 
Nikki McCray
 
Claudia Maria Pastor

 Australia (AUS)
Robyn Maher
Allison Cook
Sandy Brondello
Michele Timms
Shelley Sandie
Trisha Fallon
Michelle Chandler
Fiona Robinson
Carla Boyd
Jenny Whittle
Rachael Sporn
Michelle Brogan

With the U.S. men's team winning the gold medal, Scottie Pippen would become the first person to win an

Olympic gold medal in the same year twice, after having played for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals.[1] He had previously played with the Bulls in the 1992 and later that year, for the "Dream Team" at the Barcelona Olympics
.

Qualification

An NOC may enter up to one men's team with 12 players and up to one women's team with 12 players. The reigning world champions and the host country qualify automatically, as do the winners of the five continental championships, plus the runner-up and third place from the Americas, the runner-up from Asia and the second through fourth places from the Europe tournament. For the women's tournament, the extra teams consisted of the runner-up from the Americas, in addition to the second and third places from Asia and Europe.

Men

Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania Automatic qualifiers
 Angola  Puerto Rico
 Argentina
 Brazil
 China
 South Korea
FR Yugoslavia
 Lithuania
 Croatia
 Greece
 Australia  United StatesWorld champions and Olympic hosts

Women

Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania Automatic qualifiers
 
Zaire
 Canada
 Cuba
 China
 South Korea
 Japan
 Ukraine
 Italy
 Russia
 Australia  BrazilWorld champions
 United States – Olympic hosts

Format

  • Twelve teams are split into two preliminary round groups of six teams each.
  • The top four teams from both groups qualify for the knockout stage.
  • Fifth and sixth places from each group form an additional bracket to decide 9th–12th places in the final ranking.
  • In the quarterfinals, the matchups are as follows: A1 vs. B4, A2 vs. B3, A3 vs. B2 and A4 vs. B1.
    • The four eliminated from the quarterfinals form an additional bracket to decide 5th–8th places in the final ranking.
  • The winning teams from the quarterfinals meet in the semifinals as follows: A1/B4 vs. A3/B2 and A2/B3 vs. A4/B1.
  • The winning teams from the semifinals contest the gold medal. The losing teams contest the bronze.

Tie-breaking criteria:

  1. Head to head results
  2. Goal average (not the goal difference) between the tied teams
  3. Goal average of the tied teams for all teams in its group

Men's tournament

1996 men's teams.

Preliminary round

The four best teams from each group advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Group A

Qualified for the quarterfinals
Team W L PF PA PD Pts Tie
 United States 5 0 522 345 +177 10
 Lithuania 3 2 427 354 +73 8 1W–0L
 Croatia 3 2 422 386 +36 8 0W–1L
 China 2 3 360 502 −142 7 1W–0L
 Argentina 2 3 351 396 −45 7 0W–1L
 Angola 0 5 280 379 −99 5

Group B

Qualified for the quarterfinals
Team W L PF PA PD Pts
FR Yugoslavia
5 0 478 364 +114 10
 Australia 4 1 492 438 +54 9
 Greece 3 2 402 416 −14 8
 Brazil 2 3 498 494 +4 7
 Puerto Rico 1 4 447 465 −18 6
 South Korea 0 5 422 562 −140 5

Knockout stage

Quarterfinals (July 30) Semifinals (August 1) Gold medal (August 3)
         
B1
FR Yugoslavia
128
A4  China 61
B1
FR Yugoslavia
66
A2  Lithuania 58
A2  Lithuania 99
B3  Greece 66
B1
FR Yugoslavia
69
A1  United States 95
B2  Australia 73
A3  Croatia 71
B2  Australia 73 Bronze medal (August 3)
A1  United States 101
A1  United States 98 A2  Lithuania 80
B4  Brazil 75 B2  Australia 74

Women's tournament

1996 women's teams.

Preliminary round

The four best teams from each group advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Group A

Qualified for the quarterfinals
Team W L PF PA PD Pts
 Brazil 5 0 424 360 +64 10
 Russia 4 1 378 342 +36 9
 Italy 3 2 330 309 +21 8
 Japan 2 3 365 396 −31 7
 China 1 4 347 378 −31 6
 Canada 0 5 293 352 −59 5

Group B

Qualified for the quarterfinals
Team W L PF PA PD Pts Tie
 United States 5 0 507 339 +168 10
 Ukraine 3 2 354 358 −4 8 1W–0L
 Australia 3 2 369 319 +50 8 0W–1L
 Cuba 2 3 365 377 −12 7 1W–0L
 South Korea 2 3 347 389 −42 7 0W–1L
 
Zaire
0 5 287 447 −160 5

Knockout stage

Quarterfinals (July 31) Semifinals (August 2) Gold medal (August 4)
         
B1  Brazil 101
A4  Cuba 69
B1  Brazil 81
A2  Ukraine 60
A2  Ukraine 59
B3  Italy 50
B1  Brazil 87
A1  United States 111
B2  Russia 70
A3  Australia 74
A3  Australia 71 Bronze medal (August 4)
A1  United States 93
A1  United States 108 A2  Ukraine 56
B4  Japan 93 A3  Australia 66

Final standings

Rank Men Women
Team Pld W L Team Pld W L
1st place, gold medalist(s)  United States 8 8 0  United States 8 8 0
2nd place, silver medalist(s)
FR Yugoslavia
8 7 1  Brazil 8 7 1
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)  Lithuania 8 5 3  Australia 8 5 3
4th  Australia 8 5 3  Ukraine 8 4 4
Eliminated at the quarterfinals
5th  Greece 8 5 3  Russia 8 6 2
6th  Brazil 8 3 5  Cuba 8 3 5
7th  Croatia 8 4 4  Japan 8 3 5
8th  China 8 2 6  Italy 8 3 5
Preliminary round 5th placers
9th  Argentina 7 4 3  China 7 3 4
10th  Puerto Rico 7 2 5  South Korea 7 3 4
Preliminary round 6th placers
11th  Angola 7 1 6  Canada 7 1 6
12th  South Korea 7 0 7  
Zaire
7 0 7

References

  1. ^ Smith, Sam (August 4, 1996). "DREAM TEAM WITH GOLD MEDAL". Chicago Tribune. p. 1.