The Finland men's national basketball team (Finnish: Suomen koripallomaajoukkue, Swedish: Finlands herrlandslag i basket) represents Finland in international basketball competition. The national team is governed by Basketball Finland.
The Finnish Basketball Association was founded in February 1939. A few months earlier the Finnish Football Federation had decided to add basketball to its own repertoire. Finland first competed at the European championship at its third installment, the EuroBasket 1939. In the round-robin, they initially struggled and lost to each of the other seven teams and finished with a 70–541 overall point differential.
1950s
Finland's next European competition was 12 years later, at the EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. Overall, they fared much better and split their four preliminary round games and finished at third place in the group at 2–2 but were eliminated from championship contention. They had success after that, winning all three of their classification round 1 games and both round 2 games to finish in 9th place of the 18 teams.
In 1952, by virtue of hosting the games in Helsinki, Finland played at the Summer Olympics for the first time. The national team finished at the bottom of Group B in the preliminary round losing all of its game to the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Mexico, and failing to advance.[2]
Finland used this international experience when they competed again at the EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow. In the preliminary round, they finished with 1 win and 3 losses for 4th place of the 5 teams in the group. They fared significantly better in the first classification round, winning 3 and losing only 1 to finish in the middle of a three-way tie in the group. They lost both the 9–12 and 11/12 classification games, however, taking 12th place of 17 overall.
At the next event, Finland had some difficulty in the preliminary round of EuroBasket 1955. They lost all three early games in Budapest and were relegated to the classification round. Once again, not faced with the world elite opponents anymore, the Fins shone in the classification round and won all four of the pool play games. They won their classification 9–12 match as well, but lost to France in the 9/10 final to finish 10th of 18 in the tournament.
In Sofia, at the EuroBasket 1957, the Finns finished third in their preliminary group after going 1–2. They moved to the 9–16 classification pool and won five games there with only one loss. They took 11th place overall in the tournament.
At the EuroBasket 1995 in Greece, was Finland's first qualification to the top European basketball tournament since 1977. The national team did not fair too well at the event though. As they were routed in their first match against Russia 126–74, and ultimately led to them finishing with an 0–6 record (13th place) and were eliminated.
Finland qualified for the EuroBasket 2011. The tournament berth was the first for Finland in 16 years. There they finished third out of six teams in EuroBasket 2011 Group C and defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 92–64 and Montenegro 71–65. This allowed them to they qualify for the EuroBasket 2011 Group F. In their first match they were easily defeated by Russia but afterwards they defeated Georgia, before losing to Slovenia in their final match of the tournament. Despite not making it to the best of 8 tournament, Finland ended up making it to their first ever FIBA World Cup as a wild card team alongside Greece, Turkey, and Brazil.
Finland was selected one of the co-hosts for the EuroBasket 2017. Tournament's Group A was played in Helsinki, at the venue then called Hartwall Arena. Finland finished second in the group with wins against France, Poland, Greece and Iceland, and advanced to the round of 16 where they were defeated by Italy. They ultimately finished 11th in the competition
After not qualifying for the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Finland performed well at the 2022 EuroBasket. They finished second in their group again, after Serbia. Led by Lauri Markkanen and his historical 43-point performance, they defeated Croatia in the round of 16. Eventually they were knocked out of the competition in the quarter-finals by Spain and finished 7th in the tournament. This was the nation's best finish since 1967, when they were sixth. The event was also a farewell for the captain Shawn Huff and long-served point guard Petteri Koponen as they both announced their retirement after the tournament.
Finland also qualified for the 2023 FIBA World Cup, as the first nation from Europe to make it through in the qualifiers. They lost their group stage games against Australia, Germany and Japan in Okinawa, but performed well in the classification games against Cape Verde and Venezuela, finishing the tournament with two wins in the 21st place.
In early July 2024, Finland competed at the 2024 FIBA Olympic qualifying tournement in Valencia, Spain. Without Markkanen, they unexpectedly made it through to the tournament's final round, but were knocked out of the competition by Spain again. Mikael Jantunen was named in the tournament's All-Star Five.
3 Martti Salminen, 4 Kalevi Ihalainen, 5 Ilkka Törrönen, 6 Erkki Saurala, 8 Pentti Vuollekoski, 9 Pauli Sarkkula, 10 Heinonen, 11 Erkki Lindén, 12 Vladi Marmo, 13 Reino Valtonen, 14 Alo Suurna (Coach: Alois Suurna)
4 Kalevi Sarkalahti 5 Heikki Kasko, 6 Tapio Sten, 7 Heikki Taponen, 8 Antti Zitting, 9 Risto Lignell, 10 Raimo Mäntynen, 11 Anssi Rauramo, 12 Mikko Koskinen, 13 Klaus Mahlamäki, 14 Jarmo Laitinen, 15 Erkki Saaristo (Coach: Robert Petersen)
4 Martti Kuisma, 5 Hanno Möttölä, 6 Pekka Markkanen, 7 Sakari Pehkonen, 8 Jarkko Tuomala, 9 Markku Larkio, 10 Riku Marttinen, 11 Mika-Matti Tahvanainen, 12 Juha Luhtanen, 13 Jyri Lehtonen, 14 Kari-Pekka Klinga, 15 Petri-Mikael Niiranen (Coach: Henrik Dettmann)
Turun Palloseura, commonly known as TPS, is a professional football club based in Turku, Finland. Since 2024, the men's team competes in Ykkösliiga, the second highest tier. The women's representative team in the Kansallinen Liiga, the highest level of women's football in Finland. Nicknamed "Tepsi", the club was founded in 1922.
TPS or Turun Palloseura is an ice hockey team and 10-time champion of SM-liiga and 1-time champion of SM-sarja. They play in Turku, Finland, at Gatorade Center. In terms of championships, TPS is the second all-time most successful team in SM-Liiga, right behind Tappara.
Finland competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. 89 competitors, 84 men and 5 women, took part in 64 events in 13 sports.
Espoon Honka, also known as Honka Playboys, was a basketball club based in Espoo, Finland and it played in Korisliiga. The club was dissolved in 2011 due to financial difficulties.
Finland competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
Petteri Johannes Koponen is a Finnish professional basketball coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of the New Zealand Breakers in the Australian National Basketball League (NBL). Standing at 1.94 m, he played both point guard and shooting guard positions. He was drafted as the 30th pick by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2007 NBA draft.
The Finnish Correspondence Chess Federation is a member of the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) in Europe.
Sasu Antreas Salin is a Finnish professional basketball player who plays for Romanian team U-BT Cluj-Napoca in Liga Națională and the EuroCup. Standing at 1.91 m he plays at the shooting guard position. Salin also captains the Finland national team.
Henrik Dettmann is a Finnish professional basketball coach who last served as head coach of the French LNB Pro A team SIG Strasbourg and the Finnish national basketball team. He was the head coach of German national basketball team from 1997 to 2003, winning the bronze medal at the 2002 FIBA World Championship. In 2004, Dettman won FIBA EuroCup Challenge with Mitteldeutscher. He coached Finland national team on two occasions, for 23 years in total.
Arvo Johannes Jantunen was a Finnish basketball player and coach who also played handball, football and pesäpallo at the national top-tier level. In basketball, Jantunen represented Tampereen Pyrintö that has retired his jersey. He also played for Finnish national team in three EuroBasket editions.
Kalevi Vilho Tapio ”Kallu” Tuominen was a Finnish basketball coach and player and sports executive, who also played handball and football at the national top-tier level as well as practiced many other sports. He worked as the overall head coach of the Finnish Olympic Committee between 1969 and 1992. In basketball, the 174-centimetre-tall Jantunen played his whole SM-sarja career for Tampereen Pyrintö and also coached the team between 1960 and 1964. He was capped 11 times as a player and was a long-time head coach of Finland men's national team in its peak era. During Tuominen's coaching years 1955–1969 Finland qualified for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where it placed 11th, and played in seven EuroBaskets. In EuroBasket 1967 arranged in Finland, the host team placed sixth, which is still in 2016 Finland's best position in EuroBasket. Finland women's national basketball team placed 11th with Tuominen's guidance in EuroBasket 1956 Women. He also worked as a FIBA-licensed referee. Tuominen was inducted to the Finnish Basketball Hall of Fame as one of its first members in 2009. Pyrintö has retired Tuominen's jersey but allows players to use his number 15.
Mihailo Pavićević is a Montenegrin professional basketball coach and former player. He currently works as the head coach for Mornar of the Montenegrin Basketball League and the ABA League.
The following is the list of squads for each of the 16 teams that competed in the men's basketball tournament at the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Mikael Olli Axel Jantunen is a Finnish professional basketball player for Paris Basketball of the French LNB Élite and the EuroLeague, and for the Finland national team. He played college basketball for the Utah Utes.
Hyvät herrat is a Finnish political satire series produced between 1990 and 1996. The series was shown in 1990–1992 on Kolmoskanava and in 1993–1996 on MTV3. Aarno Laitinen was the screenwriter of the series, with his assistant mainly Lasse Lehtinen under the pseudonyms Saara Lenso, Serita Numintio and Sole Sarana. For a few years, together with Laitinen and Lehtinen, Yleisradio's political editor Jarkko Juselius wrote the series. The director of the series was Pertti Melasniemi and the producer was Jarmo Porola. A total of 207 episodes were made in the series. In 1999, the 15-part continuation series Herrat nauraa was completed, which was a continuation of the original series.
HBA-Märsky is a Finnish basketball club, administrated by the Helsinki Basketball Academy. Their home arena is in URHEA Campus in Mäkelänrinne, Vallila, Helsinki, which also serves as the National Olympic Training Center.
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(26 November 2024) [1] 
France 76–11 Finland 
Luxembourg 53–111 Finland 
Lithuania 112–9 Finland 
