The 1964 Olympic basketball tournament was played at the Kokuritsu Yoyogi Kyogijo Annex, or the Annex of the Yoyogi National Gymnasium. Basketball was the only sport held at the Annex, but swimming and diving were held at the National Gymnasium. The Annex is scheduled to host handball competition at the 2020 Olympics. Both the National Gymnasium and its Annex were built for the 1964 Olympics and were finished only shortly before the Games opened.
Sixteen (16) teams competed in 1964 men’s Olympic basketball, and qualifying was necessary for all of them. Japan was eligible as the host nation, and the top eight teams from the 1960 Olympics qualified (United States, Soviet Union, Brazil, Italy, Yugoslavia, Poland, Uruguay), but Czechoslovakia, fifth in 1960, elected not to send a team. A Pre-Olympic Tournament qualified six teams (Mexico, Australia, Canada, Finland, Hungary, Korea [replacing Czechoslovakia]). Peru and Puerto Rico qualified as the top two finishers at the 1963 Pan American Games, who were not otherwise qualified.
The format saw the 16 teams separated into two eight-team groups, which made for a lot of preliminary games. The top two teams in each group advanced to the semi-finals. The United States won its sixth consecutive gold medal, with the Soviet Union the silver medalist, as they had been in 1952, 1956, and 1960.
USA
URS
BRA