Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics was the sixteenth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It took place at the Helliniko Olympic Indoor Arena, a part of the Hellinikon Olympic Complex, in Athens, for the preliminary rounds, with the later stages being held in the Olympic Indoor Hall at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex.
| 16th Olympic Basketball Tournament | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athens 2004 | |||||||||
| Tournament details | |||||||||
| Olympics | 2004 Summer Olympics | ||||||||
| Host nation | Greece | ||||||||
| City | Athens | ||||||||
| Duration | 15–28 August 2004 | ||||||||
| Men's tournament | |||||||||
| Teams | 12 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Women's tournament | |||||||||
| Teams | 12 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Tournaments | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Basketball at the 2004 Summer Olympics | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tournament | ||
| men | women | |
| Squads | ||
| men | women | |
| Qualification | ||
| men | women | |
Argentina, led by NBA standouts like Manu Ginóbili and Luis Scola, won the country's first (and, as of 2023, only) gold in the event.
In Olympic basketball tournaments, 12 teams take part. The host nation (Greece in 2004) automatically receives a berth in the tournament. By winning the two World Championship tournaments in 2002, FR Yugoslavia, now named Serbia and Montenegro, also put a team into the men's tournament and the United States a team in the women's tournament.
The remaining 10 spots in each tournament were allocated by the five Olympic zones. Each of these zones held its own tournaments to select its entries in the Olympic tournament. Africa was allocated one spot in each of these, Oceania was allocated two apiece, and Europe was allocated three. Furthermore, the Americas were allocated three teams for the men's tournament and just one in the women's tournament, whereas Asia was allocated just one in the men's tournament and three in the women's tournament.
The United States team's third-place finish in the men's tournament was a disappointment for the program & country. The following Summer Olympics, the U.S. was represented by the Redeem Team, sporting an improved roster led by international superstars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Dwyane Wade, under the coaching of Mike Krzyzewski, and returned the gold medal to America.