The USA Basketball Men's National Team, commonly known as the United States men's national basketball team, is the basketball team representing the United States. They are the most successful team in international competition, winning medals in all nineteen Olympic tournaments it has entered, including sixteen golds. In the professional era, the team won the Olympic gold medal in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. Two of its gold medal-winning teams were inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in August 2010: the 1960 team, which featured six Hall of Famers, and the 1992 "Dream Team", featuring 14 Hall of Famers. The team is currently ranked second in the FIBA World Rankings, only behind Spain.
Toni Kukoč is a Croatian former professional basketball player who serves as Special Advisor to Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago Bulls. After a highly successful period in European basketball, he was one of the first established European stars to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "The Waiter", Kukoč played for four NBA teams between 1993 and 2006, winning the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1996. He is a three-time NBA champion, having won championships with the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in 1996, 1997, and 1998.
The Yugoslavia men's national basketball team represented the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1943 until 1992 in international basketball, and was controlled by the Basketball Federation of Yugoslavia.
Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics was the thirteenth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It included the sport of basketball's men's and women's competitions of the 1992 Summer Olympics. The games were played at the Pavelló Olímpic de Badalona. 12 men's teams and 8 women's teams participated in the tournament.
The Croatia men's national basketball team represents Croatia in international basketball matches. The team is controlled by the Croatian Basketball Federation (HKS).
Basketball at the Summer Olympics has been a sport for men consistently since 1936. Prior to its inclusion as a medal sport, basketball was held as a demonstration event in 1904. Women's basketball made its debut in the Summer Olympics in 1976. FIBA organizes both the men's and women's FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments and the Summer Olympics basketball tournaments, which are sanctioned by the IOC.
The Nigeria national basketball team represents Nigeria in men's international basketball and it is overseen by the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF).
Croatia competed in the Summer Olympic Games for the first time as an independent nation at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Previously, Croatian athletes had competed for Yugoslavia at the Olympic Games.
Arijan Komazec is a former Croatian professional basketball player.
Sport in Croatia has significant role in Croatian culture, and many local sports clubs as well as the Croatian national squads enjoy strong followings in the country. The most enduring sport by far in Croatia is football, and is played on amateur and professional levels amongst all age groups across the entire country. Several other major team sports are handball, basketball and water polo, with clubs in all parts of Croatia. Ice hockey is another popular team sport, namely in the Croatian interior. The most popular individual sports in Croatia are tennis, alpine skiing, and swimming, and to some extent table tennis and chess. Various amateur sport games are popular in Croatia, notably picigin.
Mirko Novosel was a Croatian professional basketball coach and player.
Irfan "Pipe" Smajlagić is a Bosnian-born Croatian former handball player and current coach, who competed in the 1988 Summer Olympics for Yugoslavia and in the 1996 Summer Olympics for Croatia.
The 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, nicknamed the "Dream Team", was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team has often been described as the greatest sports team ever assembled.
Ratko Rudić is a retired Croatian water polo coach and a former water polo player. As of 2015, he has won 38 medals as a coach at major events, making him the most successful water polo coach in history, and second most successful team sport coach of all time. He won four gold medals, of which three consecutive, with three different national teams at the Summer Olympics, as well as three gold medals with three national teams at the World Championships, among many others. In 2007 was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, described as "one of the best, if not the best, water polo coach to walk the deck of the pool".
Croatia competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Jasmina Perazić is a Serbian-American basketball coach and a former basketball player. Perazić was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014. She is the current head coach of Division II Georgian Court University, a member of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC).
Basketball at the 2016 Summer Olympics was the nineteenth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It took place at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was held from 6 August to 21 August 2016. The preliminary and knockout round matches for men were played inside the Carioca Arena 1 in Olympic Park which seated up to 16,000 spectators. The matches for women were played at the Youth Arena. This marked the first time that the men's and women's Olympic tournaments were played in multiple/separate venues.
The men's basketball tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, began on 6 August and ended on 21 August. The gold medal game in this discipline was the final competitive event before the Closing Ceremony. The United States won their fifteenth gold medal, after defeating Serbia, 96–66, in the gold medal match, which was the largest margin of victory in a gold medal game since the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Petar Popović is a Croatian professional basketball coach and former player.
