2024 Paris Olympics Men’s Basketball: Winners & History list

Men’s 5×5 basketball at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be the 21st medal-contested edition of the sport at the Olympics, having begun at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. Since the inception of the competition, the United States has dominated. Here is some history on record-holders and more fun facts about men’s 5×5 basketball at the Olympics.

While basketball has grown as an international sport in recent times, Team USA is still the dominant force contemporarily and historically. They have captured a record-setting 16 of 20 gold medals. The Soviet Union is next with two gold medals, followed by former Yugoslavia and Argentina with one each. Team USA also has one silver medal and two bronze medals.

Team USA won the first seven gold medals from 1936 through 1968. They lost the gold medal game in 1972 to the Soviet Union, amid some controversy. Since Argentina’s shock gold medal triumph in 2004, Team USA won the next four gold medals and is on the hunt for their fifth in a row. Serbia and Canada are expected to be their biggest competition. Serbia has one silver medal as an independent nation, and Canada has never medaled.

Amid Team USA’s dominance in the gold medal count, the 1980 Moscow Olympics remain the only men’s basketball competition where the Americans failed to win a medal of any kind.

For as much as Team USA has dominated medal accumulation, they don’t have one player in the top-5 scorers in the history of the tournament, or even the top-10. Brazilian basketball legend Oscar Schmidt is the all-time leading scorer with 1,093 points in 38 career games. He is followed by Australian Andrew Gaze, and then three names more familiar with NBA fans: Pau Gasol, Luis Scola, and Manu Ginobili.

Kevin Durant is Team USA’s all-time leading scorer with 435 points. He will definitel enter the top-10 if he plays in the 2024 Paris Olympics and could potentially enter the top-5. Ginobili is only 88 points ahead of him.

Spanish basketball legend and former Portland Trailblazers and Denver Nuggets wing Rudy Fernandez will appear in a record-setting sixth Olympic games for Spain at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Fernandez has already announced his retirement from professional basketball, making these games with Spain the last of his career.

Team USA has been a part of both the highest-scoring and lowest-scoring games in Olympic basketball history. They beat Canada 19-8 in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and beat Nigeria 156-73 at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Men’s 5×5 Olympic basketball will tip off Saturday, July 27 with Australia against Spain. Team USA will play their first game on Sunday, July 28 against Serbia. All games will be streamed on Peacock and/or appropriate partner channels.