Basketball at the 1988 Summer Olympics
| 12th Olympic Basketball Tournament | |||||||||
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| Seoul 1988 | |||||||||
| Tournament details | |||||||||
| Olympics | 1988 Summer Olympics | ||||||||
| Host nation | South Korea | ||||||||
| City | Seoul | ||||||||
| Duration | September 17 – September 30 | ||||||||
| Men's tournament | |||||||||
| Teams | 12 | ||||||||
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| Women's tournament | |||||||||
| Teams | 8 | ||||||||
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| Tournaments | |||||||||
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Basketball at the 1988 Summer Olympics | ||
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| Qualification | ||
| men | women | |
| Tournament | ||
| men | women | |
| Rosters | ||
| men | women | |
Basketball in the 1988 Summer Olympics took place at the Jamsil Gymnasium in Seoul, South Korea. The United States won the gold medal in the women's competition, thus 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. This was the last Olympic basketball tournament where NBA players were not allowed to participate, although professionals from other leagues were allowed to compete, since players from other leagues were still considered amateurs. These were also the last Olympic basketball tournaments where the Soviets fielded a team, as the Soviet Union broke up prior to the 1992 Games.
Contents
1 Medalists
2 Qualification
2.1 Men
2.2 Women
3 Format
4 Men's tournament
4.1 Preliminary round
4.1.1 Group A
4.1.2 Group B
4.2 Knockout stage
4.2.1 Championship bracket
5 Women's tournament
5.1 Preliminary round
5.1.1 Group A
5.1.2 Group B
5.2 Knockout stage
5.2.1 Championship bracket
6 Final standings
7 References
Medalists
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's |  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 | 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 Wild 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. Last three berths are allocated from European qualifying tournament, held in 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 States – Olympic Champions South Korea – Olympic hosts |
Women
| Asia | Europe | Oceania | Automatic qualifiers |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | Soviet Union Yugoslavia Czechoslovakia Bulgaria | Australia | United States – Olympic 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 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 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 matchups 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:
- Head to head results
Goal average (not the goal difference) between the tied teams- 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 | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yugoslavia | 5 | 4 | 1 | 468 | 384 | +84 | 9 | Quarter-finals |
| 2 | Soviet Union | 5 | 4 | 1 | 460 | 393 | +67 | 9 | |
| 3 | Australia | 5 | 3 | 2 | 429 | 408 | +21 | 8 | |
| 4 |  Puerto Rico | 5 | 3 | 2 | 382 | 387 | −5 | 8 | |
| 5 | Central African Republic | 5 | 1 | 4 | 346 | 436 | −90 | 6 | |
| 6 | South Korea | 5 | 0 | 5 | 384 | 461 | −77 | 5 |
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head results; 3) Points average among tied; 4) Points average.
Group B
Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 5 | 5 | 0 | 485 | 302 | +183 | 10 | Quarter-finals |
| 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 | |
| 6 | Egypt | 5 | 0 | 5 | 338 | 568 | −230 | 5 |
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head results; 3) Points average among tied; 4) Points average.
Knockout stage
Championship bracket
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Gold medal match | ||||||||
| September 26 | ||||||||||
| (A1) Yugoslavia | 95 | |||||||||
| September 28 | ||||||||||
| (B4) Canada | 73 | |||||||||
| (A1) Yugoslavia | 91 | |||||||||
| September 26 | ||||||||||
| (A3) Australia | 70 | |||||||||
| (B2) Spain | 74 | |||||||||
| September 30 | ||||||||||
| (A3) Australia | 77 | |||||||||
| (A1) Yugoslavia | 63 | |||||||||
| September 26 | ||||||||||
| (A2) Soviet Union | 76 | |||||||||
| (B1) United States | 94 | |||||||||
| September 28 | ||||||||||
| (A4) Puerto Rico | 57 | |||||||||
| (B1) United States | 76 | |||||||||
| September 26 | ||||||||||
| (A2) Soviet Union | 82 | Bronze medal match | ||||||||
| (A2) Soviet Union | 110 | |||||||||
| September 29 | ||||||||||
| (B3) Brazil | 105 | |||||||||
| (A3) Australia | 49 | |||||||||
| (B1) United States | 78 | |||||||||
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 | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 3 | 2 | 1 | 178 | 196 | −18 | 5 | Semifinals |
| 2 | Soviet Union | 3 | 2 | 1 | 208 | 188 | +20 | 5 | |
| 3 |  Bulgaria | 3 | 1 | 2 | 217 | 241 | −24 | 4 | |
| 4 | South Korea | 3 | 1 | 2 | 244 | 222 | +22 | 4 |
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head results; 3) Points average among tied; 4) Points average.
Group B
Pos | Team | 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 | |
| 4 | Czechoslovakia | 3 | 0 | 3 | 202 | 224 | −22 | 3 |
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head results; 3) Points average among tied; 4) Points average.
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) | |||
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| A1 | Australia | 53 | ||||||
| | A2 | Soviet Union | 68 | |||||
Final standings
| Rank | Men | Women | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Pld | W | L | Team | Pld | W | L | |
 | Soviet Union | 8 | 7 | 1 | United States | 5 | 5 | 0 |
 | Yugoslavia | 8 | 6 | 2 | Yugoslavia | 5 | 3 | 2 |
 | 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
- Official Olympic Report
- USA Basketball
1988 Olympic Games: Tournament for Men, FIBA Archive
1988 Olympic Games: Tournament for Women, FIBA Archive
Basketball at the Summer Olympics | ||||||
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