Basketball contests at the 1996 Olympic Games were held from July 20, 1996 to
August 4, 1996. Games took place in the Morehouse College Gymnasium and in the
Georgia Dome. For the second straight Olympic games, the American men's team
composed almost completely of NBA players won the gold medal.
This was also the last Olympics before the founding of the Women's National
Basketball Association in the United States, and it has been the only Summer
Olympics to take place in a city with an NBA team – since the International
Olympic Committee started allowing these professional players to compete –
because Atlanta is the home of the Atlanta Hawks team. The Summer Olympics
have never returned to the United States or to Canada since then.
Medalists With U.S.A. winning the gold medal,
Scottie Pippen would become the first person to win NBA championship and
Olympic gold medal in the same year twice, having played for Chicago Bulls
in the NBA Finals. He had played for the Bulls in 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=
= Women= 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:
Head to head results Goal average between the tied teams
Goal average of the tied teams for all teams in its group
Teams = Men=
The men's event involved twelve teams split equally into two groups.
= Women= The women's event involved 12 teams
split in two groups. Men's tournament
= Preliminary round= The four best teams from each group
advanced to the quarterfinal round. Group A
Group B = Knockout stage=
Championship bracket Classification brackets
9th–12th Place 5th–8th Place
Women's tournament = Preliminary round=
The four best teams from each group advanced to the quarterfinal round.
Group A Group B
= Knockout stage= Championship bracket
Classification brackets 9th–12th Place
5th–8th Place Final standings
References Official Olympic Report
1996 Olympic Games: Tournament for Men, FIBA Archive. Accessed June 25, 2011.
1996 Olympic Games: Tournament for Women, FIBA Archive. Accessed June 25,
2011.