Basketball contests at the 1984 Summer Olympics was the eleventh appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It took place at The Forum in Inglewood, California, United States from July 29 to August 10. The United States won the gold medal in both events, the first in the women's team history. Due to the boycott, the Soviet Union and Hungary withdrew from the tournament. The former, having already qualified for both events was replaced by West Germany in the men's competition, while both nations' women's teams were replaced by Australia and South Korea.
An NOC may enter up to one men's team with 12 players and up to one women's team with 12 players. Automatic qualifications were granted to the host country for both events plus the gold and silver medal winners from the previous Olympic Games in the men's tournament, and the champion at the 1983 FIBA World Championship in the women's tournament. Additional spots for the men's tournament were decided via the continental championships held by FIBA, while additional spots for the women's competition were assigned to the top six teams in a tournament held in Havana, Cuba.
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 matchups 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.
The winning teams from the semifinals contest the gold medal. The losing teams contest the bronze.
Women's tournament:
One round-robin group is formed containing all six teams, where the top two compete for the gold medal, while the third and fourth places compete for the bronze medal in an additional match.
The remaining two teams finish with their group rank in the final standings.
Tie-breaking criteria:
Head to head results
Men's tournament[]
Main article:
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. Both the host nation's team United States and then Olympic Champions Yugoslavia advanced undefeated to the second stage. The only teams representing Asia and Africa, China and Egypt respectively couldn't advance and ended up competing for eighth place with Brazil and France.
The first two places in the preliminary group compete for the gold medal, while the third and fourth places compete for the bronze. The remaining teams' group ranking determines their positions in the final standings. With the withdrawal of the Soviet Union's women's team, a new Olympic champion was to be crowned in Los Angeles. The host nation's team went through the first round undefeated and won their first gold medal in women's basketball history against South Korea, one of the teams invited to replace the Soviet Union and Hungary. China, the other Asian representative, earned a bronze medal by defeating Canada. Yugoslavia's team couldn't repeat their bronze medal performance from the previous tournament and finished at the bottom of the rankings.
United States
Soviet Union
China
Egypt
Australia
Canada
Yugoslavia
Brazil
Italy
Uruguay
France
Spain
West Germany[b]
South Korea[c]
Hungary
Basketball at the Summer Olympics
