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| Event type

Basketball, Men

Date25 July – 7 August 2021
StatusOlympic
LocationSaitama Super Arena, Chūō-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
Participants143 from 12 countries
FormatRound-robin pools advance teams to classification matches.

All the games took place at Saitama Super Arena. There was a minor change in the format, as the last several Olympics had two groups of 6 teams each, with eight teams advancing to a knockout stage. In Tokyo the groups were changed into three groups of 4 teams each, again with eight teams entering the single elimination phase.

The United States had won gold in 2008, 2012, and 2016 but seemed more vulnerable in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic had forced the NBA season to start later and finish only the week before the Olympics. With that late finish many of the best American players elected not to compete at the Olympics. In addition, in pre-Olympic games, both Nigeria and Australia defeated the USA men, and the United States’ Olympic dominance seemed in danger.

One other change was that long-time Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who had coached the United States’ team at the last three Olympics, had stepped down, with the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich now in charge. It was likely a minor change as Popovich was one of the greatest coaches in NBA annals.

Once in Tokyo, France defeated the United States in the first group match, 83-76, further inflaming their critics. France went on to win Group A, while the USA finished second but still advanced to the knockout rounds. The other groups were won by Australia and Slovenia, which was led by 2019 NBA Rookie of the Year Luka Dončić, who scored 48 points again Argentina in their group match-up.

Sparked by Kevin Durant, who would win his third gold medal, the USA won their quarter-final over Spain, 95-81 and then beat Australia quite comfortably in the semi-finals, seemingly getting stronger with each game. In the other half of the bracket, France defeated Italy and then Slovenia to earn a re-match with the Americans. The final was relatively close, but the United States was in charge the entire second half and finally won gold by 87-82. Australia defeated Slovenia, 107-93, to take the bronze medal, giving the Aussies their first Olympic medal in men’s basketball after four fourth-place finishes (1988, 1996, 2000, 2016).

PosTeamNOC
1United StatesUSAGold
Keldon Johnson
Zach LaVine
Damian Lillard
Kevin Durant
Khris Middleton
Jerami Grant
Jayson Tatum
JaVale McGee
Jrue Holiday
Bam Adebayo
Draymond Green
Devin Booker
CoachGregg Popovich
2FranceFRASilver
Frank Ntilikina
Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot
Thomas Heurtel
Nicolas Batum
Guerschon Yabusele
Evan Fournier
Nando de Colo
Vincent Poirier
Andrew Albicy
Rudy Gobert
Petr Cornelie
Moustapha Fall
CoachVincent Collet
3AustraliaAUSBronze
Chris Goulding
Patty Mills
Josh Green
Joe Ingles
Matt Dellavedova
Nathan Sobey
Matisse Thybulle
Danté Exum
Aron Baynes
Jock Landale
Duop Reath
Nick Kay
CoachBrian Goorjian
4SloveniaSLO
Luka Rupnik
Aleksej Nikolić
Klemen Prepelič
Edo Murić
Mike Tobey
Jaka Blažič
Gregor Hrovat
Žiga Dimec
Zoran Dragić
Vlatko Čančar
Jakob Čebašek
Luka Dončić
CoachAleksander Sekulić
5ItalyITA
Marco Spissu
Niccolò Mannion
Stefano Tonut
Danilo Gallinari
Nicolò Melli
Simone Fontecchio
Amedeo Tessitori
Giampaolo Ricci
Riccardo Moraschini
Michele Vitali
Achille Polonara
Alessandro Pajola
CoachRomeo Sacchetti
6SpainESP
Xabi López-Arostegui
Pau Gasol
Rudy Fernández
Sergio Rodríguez
Ricky Rubio
Víctor Claver
Marc Gasol
Willy Hernangómez
Usman Garuba
Alberto Abalde
Álex Abrines
Sergio Llull
CoachSergio Scariolo
7ArgentinaARG
Luis Scola
Facu Campazzo
Nicolás Laprovíttola
Nico Brussino
Leandro Bolmaro
Francisco Cáffaro
Marcos Delía
Gabriel Deck
Luca Vildoza
Juan Pablo Vaulet
Patricio Garino
Tayavek Gallizzi
CoachSergio Hernández
8GermanyGER
Isaac Bonga
Joshiko Saibou
Maodo Lô
Niels Giffey
Jan Niklas Wimberg
Johannes Voigtmann
Robin Benzing
Moritz Wagner
Lukas Wank
Danilo Barthel
Johannes Thiemann
Andreas Obst
CoachHenrik Rödl
9Czech RepublicCZE
Patrik Auda
Tomáš Vyoral
Tomáš Satoranský
Blake Schilb
Ondřej Balvín
Jakub Šiřina
Martin Peterka
Jaromír Bohačík
Ondřej Sehnal
Lukáš Palyza
Jan Veselý
David Jelínek
CoachRonen Ginzburg
10NigeriaNGR
KZ Okpala
Caleb Agada
Ekpe Udoh
Chimezie Metu
Obi Emegano
Miye Oni
Jahlil Okafor
Josh Okogie
Gabe Vincent
Jordan Nwora
Ike Nwamu
Precious Achiuwa
CoachMike Brown
11JapanJPN
Yuki Togashi
Makoto Hiejima
Rui Hachimura
Leo Vendrame
Yuta Watanabe
Kosuke Kanamaru
Yudai Baba
Gavin Earl Edwards
Daiki Tanaka
Avi Schafer
Tenketsu Harimoto
Hugh Watanabe DNS
CoachJulio Lamas
12Islamic Republic of IranIRI
Mohammadsina Vahedi
Philip Jalalpoor
Mohammad Hassanzadeh
Saeid Davarpanah
Mohammad Jamshidi
Samad Nikkhah Bahrami
Hamed Haddadi
Navid Rezaeifar
Mike Rostampour
Aaron Geramipoor
Arsalan Kazemi
Behnam Yakhchali
CoachMehran Shahintab

Preliminary Round

Date25 July – 1 August 2021

Group A

Date25 – 31 July 2021
FormatRound-robin pools.
PosTeamNOCWinsLossesPointsPoints
1FranceFRA306259-215
2United StatesUSA214315-233
3Czech RepublicCZE122245-294
4Islamic Republic of IranIRI030206-283
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #125 Jul 10:00Czech Republic 1CZE84 – 78Islamic Republic of Iran 2IRI
Match #225 Jul 21:00France 3FRA83 – 76United States 4USA
Match #328 Jul 13:40United States 5USA120 – 66Islamic Republic of Iran 6IRI
Match #428 Jul 21:00France 7FRA97 – 77Czech Republic 8CZE
Match #531 Jul 10:00France 9FRA79 – 62Islamic Republic of Iran 10IRI
Match #631 Jul 21:00United States 11USA119 – 84Czech Republic 12CZE

Group B

Date25 – 31 July 2021
FormatRound-robin pools.
PosTeamNOCWinsLossesPointsPoints
1AustraliaAUS306259-226
2ItalyITA214255-239
3GermanyGER122257-273
4NigeriaNGR030230-263
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #125 Jul 13:40Italy 13ITA92 – 82Germany 14GER
Match #225 Jul 17:20Australia 15AUS84 – 67Nigeria 16NGR
Match #328 Jul 10:00Germany 17GER99 – 92Nigeria 18NGR
Match #428 Jul 17:20Australia 19AUS86 – 83Italy 20ITA
Match #531 Jul 13:40Italy 21ITA80 – 71Nigeria 22NGR
Match #631 Jul 17:20Australia 23AUS89 – 76Germany 24GER

Group C

Date26 July – 1 August 2021
FormatRound-robin pools.
PosTeamNOCWinsLossesPointsPoints
1SloveniaSLO306329-268
2SpainESP214256-243
3ArgentinaARG122268-276
4JapanJPN030235-301
MatchDate/TimeTeamNOCResultTeamNOC
Match #126 Jul 13:40Slovenia 25SLO118 – 100Argentina 26ARG
Match #226 Jul 21:00SpainESP88 – 77Japan 27JPN
Match #329 Jul 13:40Slovenia 28SLO116 – 81Japan 29JPN
Match #429 Jul 21:00Spain 30ESP81 – 71Argentina 31ARG
Match #501 Aug 13:40Argentina 32ARG97 – 77Japan 33JPN
Match #601 Aug 17:40Slovenia 34SLO95 – 87Spain 35ESP

Quarter-Finals

Date3 August 2021 — 10:00
FormatWinner of each match advanced to the semi-finals.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match #103 Aug 10:00Slovenia 36SLO94 – 70Germany 37GER
Match #203 Aug 13:40United States 38USA95 – 81Spain 39ESP
Match #303 Aug 17:20France 40FRA84 – 75Italy 41ITA
Match #403 Aug 21:00Australia 42AUS97 – 59Argentina 43ARG

Semi-Finals

Date5 August 2021 — 13:15
FormatWinner of each match advanced to the final round.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match #105 Aug 13:15United States 44USA97 – 78Australia 45AUS
Match #205 Aug 20:00France 46FRA90 – 89Slovenia 47SLO

Final Round

Date7 August 2021 — 11:30
FormatMedal round.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match 1/207 Aug 11:30United States 48USA87 – 82France 49FRA
Match 3/407 Aug 20:00Australia 50AUS107 – 93Slovenia 51SLO