Basketball at the 1988 Summer Olympics

International basketball tournament
12th Olympic Basketball Tournament
Seoul 1988
Tournament details
Olympics1988 Summer Olympics
Host nationSouth Korea
CitySeoul
DurationSeptember 17 – September 30
Men's tournament
Teams12
Medals
1 Gold medalists  Soviet Union
2 Silver medalists Yugoslavia
3 Bronze medalists  United States
Women's tournament
Teams8
Medals
1 Gold medalists  United States
2 Silver medalists Yugoslavia
3 Bronze medalists  Soviet Union
Tournaments
← Los Angeles 1984  Barcelona 1992 →
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Basketball at the 1988 Summer Olympics was the twelfth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It took place at the Jamsil Gymnasium in Seoul, South Korea from 17 September to 30 September 1988. The United States won the gold medal in the women's competition, repeating their performance from the 1984 tournament.

In the men's tournament, the Soviet Union took home their second gold medal in the team's history for this event. That team included a large percentage of Baltic basketballers: Sabonis, Chomičius, Kurtinaitis and Marčiulionis from Lithuania, Miglinieks from Latvia, and Tiit Sokk from Estonia.

This was the last Olympic basketball tournament where NBA players were not allowed to participate; FIBA voted in a rule change in 1989 that lifted that restriction, leading to the dominance of 1992's Dream Team.[1][2]

Medalists

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's
details
 Soviet Union (URS)
Aleksandr Volkov
Tiit Sokk
Sergei Tarakanov
Šarūnas Marčiulionis
Igors Miglinieks
Valeri Tikhonenko
Rimas Kurtinaitis
Arvydas Sabonis
Viktor Pankrashkin
Valdemaras Chomičius
Aleksandr Belostennyi
Valeri Goborov
 Yugoslavia (YUG)
Dražen Petrović
Zdravko Radulović
Zoran Čutura
Toni Kukoč
Žarko Paspalj
Željko Obradović
Jure Zdovc
Stojko Vranković
Vlade Divac
Franjo Arapović
Dino Rađa
Danko Cvjetićanin
 United States (USA)
Mitch Richmond
Charles Smith IV
Bimbo Coles
Hersey Hawkins
Jeff Grayer
Charles D. Smith
Willie Anderson
Stacey Augmon
Dan Majerle
Danny Manning
J. R. Reid
David Robinson
Women's
details
 United States (USA)
Teresa Edwards
Kamie Ethridge
Cynthia Brown
Anne Donovan
Teresa Weatherspoon
Bridgette Gordon
Victoria Bullett
Andrea Lloyd
Katrina McClain
Jennifer Gillom
Cynthia Cooper
Suzanne McConnell
 Yugoslavia (YUG)
Stojna Vangelovska
Mara Lakić
Žana Lelas
Eleonora Vild
Kornelija Kvesić
Danira Nakić
Slađana Golić
Polona Dornik
Razija Mujanović
Vesna Bajkuša
Anđelija Arbutina
Bojana Milošević
 Soviet Union (URS)
Olga Yevkova
Irina Gerlits
Olesya Barel
Irina Sumnikova
Olga Buryakina
Olga Yakovleva
Irina Minkh
Aleksandra Leonova
Yelena Khudashova
Vitalija Tuomaitė
Natalya Zasulskaya
Galina Savitskaya

Qualification

A NOC could enter one men's team with 12 players and one women's team with 12 players. For both tournaments, automatic qualifications were granted to the host country and the winners from the previous edition. For the men's tournament, the remaining teams were decided by the continental championships in Asia, Oceania, Africa and Americas and European qualifying tournament. Champions of Asia and Oceania, top two teams from Africa and top three from Americas earned direct qualification. The last three berths were allocated from the European qualifying tournament, held in the Netherlands, two months before Olympics tournament. For the women's tournament, qualification was decided by a tournament held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the top six teams earned a spot.

Men

Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania Automatic qualifiers
 Central African Republic
 Egypt
 Puerto Rico
 Brazil
 Canada
 China  Soviet Union
 Yugoslavia
 Spain
 Australia  United StatesOlympic Champions
 South Korea – Olympic hosts

Women

Asia Europe Oceania Automatic qualifiers
 China  Soviet Union
 Yugoslavia
 Czechoslovakia
 Bulgaria
 Australia  United StatesOlympic Champions
 South Korea – Olympic hosts

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–12th places in the final ranking.
  • In the quarterfinals, the match ups 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–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.

Women's tournament:

  • Two groups of four teams are formed, where the top two teams 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.
  • In the semifinals, the match ups are as follows: A1 vs. B2, A2 vs. 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

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. Hosts Korea couldn't advance, finishing at the bottom of their group. The other Asia representative, China, met the same fate, together with the two African teams, Egypt and Central African Republic.

Group A

Pos Team
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Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1  Yugoslavia 5 4 1 468 384 +84 9[a] Quarterfinals
2  Soviet Union 5 4 1 460 393 +67 9[a]
3  Australia 5 3 2 429 408 +21 8[b]
4  Puerto Rico 5 3 2 382 387 −5 8[b]
5  Central African Republic 5 1 4 346 436 −90 6 9th–12th classification round
6  South Korea (H) 5 0 5 384 461 −77 5
Source: FIBA archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal average; 4) head-to-head number of points scored.
(H) Hosts
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Head-to-head record: Yugoslavia 1–0 Soviet Union
  2. ^ a b Head-to-head record: Australia 1–0 Puerto Rico

Group B

Pos Team
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Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1  United States 5 5 0 485 302 +183 10 Quarterfinals
2  Spain 5 4 1 484 435 +49 9
3  Brazil 5 3 2 590 522 +68 8
4  Canada 5 2 3 479 455 +24 7
5  China 5 1 4 433 527 −94 6 9th–12th classification round
6  Egypt 5 0 5 338 568 −230 5
Source: FIBA archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal average; 4) head-to-head number of points scored.

Knockout stage

Championship bracket

 
Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsGold medal match
 
          
 
September 26
 
 
(A1)  Yugoslavia95
 
September 28
 
(B4)  Canada73
 
(A1)  Yugoslavia91
 
September 26
 
(A3)  Australia70
 
(B2)  Spain74
 
September 30
 
(A3)  Australia77
 
(A1)  Yugoslavia63
 
September 26
 
(A2)  Soviet Union76
 
(B1)  United States94
 
September 28
 
(A4)  Puerto Rico57
 
(B1)  United States76
 
September 26
 
(A2)  Soviet Union82 Third place
 
(A2)  Soviet Union110
 
September 29
 
(B3)  Brazil105
 
(A3)  Australia49
 
 
(B1)  United States78
 

Women's tournament

Preliminary round

The first two places in each of the preliminary round groups advanced to the semifinals, where Group A teams would meet Group B teams. Like their male counterparts, the Korea women's team didn't manage to advance to the knockout stage and ended up battling for 5th place against the other Asian representative, China and two of the European teams, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia.

Group A

Pos Team
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Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1  Australia 3 2 1 178 196 −18 5[a] Semifinals
2  Soviet Union 3 2 1 208 188 +20 5[a]
3  Bulgaria 3 1 2 217 241 −24 4[b] Classification round
4  South Korea (H) 3 1 2 244 222 +22 4[b]
Source: FIBA
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal average; 4) head-to-head number of points scored.
(H) Hosts
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Head-to-head record: Australia 1–0 Soviet Union
  2. ^ a b Head-to-head record: Bulgaria 1–0 South Korea

Group B

Pos Team
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Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1  United States 3 3 0 282 234 +48 6 Semifinals
2  Yugoslavia 3 2 1 199 211 −12 5
3  China 3 1 2 200 214 −14 4 Classification round
4  Czechoslovakia 3 0 3 202 224 −22 3
Source: FIBA
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal average; 4) head-to-head number of points scored.

Knockout stage

Championship bracket

Semifinals (September 27) Gold medal (September 29)
      
A1  Australia 56
B2  Yugoslavia 57
B2  Yugoslavia 70
B1  United States 77
B1  United States 102
A2  Soviet Union 88 Bronze medal (September 28)
A1  Australia 53
A2  Soviet Union 68

Final standings

Rank Men Women
Team Pld W L Team Pld W L
1st place, gold medalist(s)  Soviet Union 8 7 1  United States 5 5 0
2nd place, silver medalist(s)  Yugoslavia 8 6 2  Yugoslavia 5 3 2
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)  United States 8 7 1  Soviet Union 5 3 2
4th  Australia 8 4 4  Australia 5 2 3
Eliminated in the quarterfinals Eliminated in the group round
5th  Brazil 8 5 3  Bulgaria 5 3 2
6th  Canada 8 3 5  China 5 2 3
7th  Puerto Rico 8 4 4  South Korea 5 2 3
8th  Spain 8 4 4  Czechoslovakia 5 0 5
Eliminated in the group round
9th  South Korea 7 2 5
10th  Central African Republic 7 2 5
11th  China 7 2 5
12th  Egypt 7 0 7

References

  1. ^ Kalb, Elliott; Weinstein, Mark (2009). The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time. Skyhorse. p. 71. ISBN 9781602396784. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  2. ^ Freedman, Lew (2015). The 100 Most Important Sporting Events in American History. ABC-CLIO. p. 121. ISBN 9781440835759. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  • Official Olympic Report
  • USA Basketball
  • 1988 Olympic Games: Tournament for Men, FIBA Archive
  • 1988 Olympic Games: Tournament for Women, FIBA Archive
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