Basketball at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Basketball at the 1948 Summer Olympics was the second appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. A total number of 23 nations entered the competition.
Olympic basketball returned to indoor competition in Harringay Arena, after the disastrous weather conditions of the final game in the 1936 Summer Olympics.
Format
- In the preliminary rounds, teams were divided into 3 groups of 6 squads and a group with 5 squads.
- The preliminary round was played in a single round-robin format
- The Group tournament ranking system was observed as follows:
| Team Result | Point Equivalent |
| Game Win | 2 |
| Game loss via ordinary circumstances | 1 |
| Game loss via default | 0 |
- Ties were broken by the ratio of points scored to points allowed.
- After the preliminaries, the top 2 teams in each group will advance to the final round.
- The 4 remaining teams went to their respective classification playoffs.
Medalists
Participating teams
Playoff berths for the Tournament
Results
Preliminary round
Group A
- Uruguay def. Great Britain, 69–17
- Brazil def. Hungary, 45–41
- Canada def. Italy, 55–37
- Brazil def. Uruguay, 36–32
- Canada def. Great Britain, 44–24
- Hungary def. Italy, 32–19
- Brazil def. Great Britain, 76–11
- Hungary def. Canada, 37–36
- Uruguay def. Italy, 46–34
- Italy def. Great Britain, 49–28
- Uruguay def. Hungary, 49–31
- Brazil def. Canada, 57–35
- Hungary def. Great Britain, 60–23
- Brazil def. Italy, 47–31
- Canada def. Uruguay, 52–50
Group B
Group C
Group D
17th-23rd place classification playoffs
Classification 21st-23rd
- Since the total number of competitors of the tournament was not a power of 2, a bye was given to Egypt, meaning they advanced to the classification semifinals. Also, Ireland was deemed to have finished last, due to the loss to Switzerland and a bye they earned from Iraq.
9th-16th place classification playoffs
Classification 13th-16th
- Hungary forfeited all of the matches in this round as indicated above.
Final round
Classification 5th-8th
Boxscores
17th–23rd place quarterfinals
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21st–23rd place semifinal
17th–20th place semifinals
----9th–16th place quarterfinals
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13th–16th place semifinals
----9th–12th place semifinals
----Quarterfinals
----5th–8th place semifinals
----Semifinals
----Final classification matches
21st place match
19th place match
17th place match
15th place match
13th place match
11th place match
9th place match
7th place match
5th place match
Bronze medal match
Gold medal match
Awards
Participating nations
For the team rosters see: Basketball at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's team squads.Each country was allowed to enter one team of up to 14 players and they all were eligible for participation. A total of 298' basketball players from 23 nations competed at the London Games:
and It is uncertain if P. Benedek and J. Verbenyi played for Hungary in this tournament. The official report shows them, but Hungarian sources did not, however they are counted.