Basketball at the 1976 Summer Olympics


Basketball events at the 1976 Summer Olympics was the ninth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It took place from July 18 to July 27 at the Centre Étienne Desmarteau and the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Women's basketball was introduced to the Olympic program for the first time at this Games. The United States won the gold against Yugoslavia in the men's tournament, while the Soviet Union won the gold medal against the United States in the women's competition.

Medal summary

Qualification

A single NOC may enter up to one men's team with 12 players and up to one women's team with 12 players. Automatic qualifications were granted to the host country for both events plus the three medal winners from the previous Olympic Games for the men's tournament, and the three first places at the 1975 FIBA World Championship for the women's tournament. Additional spots for the men's tournament were decided via the continental qualification tournaments held by FIBA and an extra qualifying tournament held in Hamilton, Canada months prior to the contest. The remaining slots for the women's competition were also assigned via another tournament held in the same city.

Men

Women

Men's tournament:
Women's tournament:
Tie-breaking criteria:
  1. Head to head results
  2. Goal average between the tied teams
  3. Goal average of the tied teams for all teams in its group

    Men'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. The Soviet Union and the United States, two of the powerhouses at this tournament, finished the preliminary round undefeated. The host nation, Canada, also qualified for the semifinals together with Yugoslavia.
Egypt played only one match, against Czechoslovakia, and then flew home supporting the boycott of several African countries. Their remaining matches were forfeited.

Group A

TeamPts
50548374+17410
41446416+309
32448402+468
23472481−97
14461511−506
05364555−1915

Group B

TeamPts
50396349+4710
41366343+239
32349344+58
23418406+127
14323363−426
0564111−391

Knockout stage

Championship bracket

Classification brackets

5th–8th Place
9th–12th Place
Forfeited match.

Women's tournament

The first Olympic Basketball Tournament for Women consisted of a single round-robin group, where final standings where determined by the group rankings. The Soviet team finished undefeated and won the gold medal, while the American team won the silver medal through a victory over Bulgarian team that broke the tie between the two teams in favor of the American team.
TeamPts
50504346+15810
32415417−281W–0L
32365377−1280W–1L
23351359−871W–0L
23405400+570W–1L
05336477−1415

Final standings