Basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's qualification

The basketball qualification for the Summer Olympics men's basketball tournament occurred from 2006–2008; all five FIBA (International Basketball Federation) zones sent in teams.

The first qualifying tournament was the 2006 FIBA World Championship in which the champion was guaranteed of a place in the Olympics. Throughout the next two years, several regional tournaments served as qualification for the zonal tournaments, which doubles as intercontinental championships, to determine which teams will participate in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Qualification

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Outright qualification

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A total of 12 teams will take part in the Olympics, with each NOC sending in one team. The host nation (the People's Republic of China) qualifies automatically as hosts.

There are a total of 5 zonal tournaments (doubling as intercontinental championships) that determined the qualifying teams, with a total of 7 teams qualifying outright. Each zone was allocated with the following qualifying berths:

Furthermore, the current world champion, Spain qualified automatically by winning at the 2006 FIBA World Championship.

Qualification via the wildcard tournament

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The additional three teams will be determined at the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2008, with the best non-qualifying teams participating from teams that did not qualify outright. Each zone is allocated with the following berths:

Summary

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Qualified for the Olympics outright
Qualified automatically
Qualified for the Wildcard Tournament

These are the final standings of the different Olympic qualifying tournaments. The venues are as follows, with the city of the knockout stage mentioned first:

Rank World Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania Wildcard
1st   Spain   Angola   United States   Iran   Russia   Australia   Croatia
  Greece
Ranked 1st
2nd   Greece   Cameroon   Argentina   Lebanon   Spain   New Zealand
3rd   United States   Cape Verde   Puerto Rico   South Korea   Lithuania   Germany
4th   Argentina   Egypt   Brazil   Kazakhstan   Greece   Puerto Rico
5th   France   Nigeria   Canada   Jordan   Germany   New Zealand
  Brazil
  Slovenia
  Canada
Ranked 5th
6th   Turkey   Tunisia   Uruguay   Chinese Taipei   Croatia
7th   Lithuania   C.A.R.   Mexico   Qatar   Slovenia
8th   Germany   Ivory Coast   Venezuela   Japan   France
9th   Italy
  Angola
  Serbia and Montenegro
  Slovenia
  Australia
  Nigeria
  China
  New Zealand
Ranked 9th
  Senegal   Panama   Philippines   Israel
  Italy
  Portugal
  Turkey
Ranked 9th
  Lebanon
  Cape Verde
  South Korea
  Cameroon
Ranked 9th
10th   Morocco   Virgin Islands   China
11th   Mali   Syria
12th   Rwanda   Indonesia
13th   South Africa   Hong Kong   Czech Rep.
  Latvia
  Poland
  Serbia
Ranked 13th
14th   Mozambique   Kuwait
15th   DR Congo   India
16th   Liberia   UAE
17th =   Puerto Rico
  Lebanon
  Brazil
  Japan
21st =   Venezuela
  Senegal
  Panama
  Qatar

FIBA Africa

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The FIBA Africa Championship 2007 at Angola determined FIBA Africa's only outright representative to the Olympics and two wildcard participants.

The tournament is structured into a preliminary round of 16 teams divided into 4 groups; the top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stages (quarterfinals, semifinals and final).

Angola won the tournament, beating Cameroon in the final, 86-72.[1] Cape Verde defeated Egypt by 2 points, 53-51 to join Cameroon in the wildcard tournament.[2]

FIBA Americas

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The 2007 FIBA Americas Championship held in the Thomas & Mack Center at Las Vegas, Nevada determined the two teams representing FIBA Americas in the Olympics.

The tournament is structured into a preliminary round of ten teams divided into 2 groups; the bottom team from each group is eliminated in the quarterfinals, where results between groupmates carry over. The Top four teams advance to the semifinals. The fifth-best team in the quarterfinals qualifies for the Olympics.

Hosts United States won the tournament, defeating Argentina 118–81 in the final.[3] Puerto Rico and Brazil, the other semifinalists, and Canada the fifth-place team (tied for fourth at the quarterfinals but was beaten by Puerto Rico 72–66 in the last day of the quarterfinals to win the tiebreaker) qualify for the wildcard tournament.[2]

FIBA Asia

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With China automatically qualified, a much weaker team (without Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi) leaves the race wide open for FIBA Asia's Olympic berth. The tournament held in Tokushima, Japan is structured with a preliminary round of 16 teams divided into four groups, with the top two teams advancing to the quarterfinals, where they'll be divided into two groups. The top two teams in the quarterfinals groups advance to the knockout semifinals and finals.

China's early elimination in the preliminary round (their worst performance in the Asian Championships) simplified the implications: only the winner will advance outright to the Olympics. That winner was Iran which defeated Lebanon 74-69 in the final.[4] Korea escaped Kazakhstan 80-76 to join Lebanon in the wildcard tournament.[2]

FIBA Europe

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Although Spain automatically qualified, they sent in their "A" team, considering EuroBasket 2007 was held in their homeland.

The tournament was divided into five rounds: the preliminary round where 16 teams are divided into 4 groups, the qualifying round, where bottom team from the prelims are eliminated, while the teams are reassigned into two 6-team groups, with results between teams that played already carried over, then the knockout stages (quarterfinals up to the final) where the top 4 teams in the qualifying round groups advance.

Spain survived into the final, where they were beaten by Russia, 60–59, which qualified outright to the Olympics.[5] The other outright berth was decided in the third-place game, where Lithuania beat Greece, 78–69. The wildcard qualifiers are Greece, Germany, Croatia and Slovenia, which defeated France in the 7th place game, 88–74, for the last wildcard berth.[2]

FIBA Oceania

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With only Australia and New Zealand participating in the FIBA Oceania Championship 2007, FIBA Oceania's Olympic berth was decided in a best-of-three series played in Australia.

Australia won the first two games, rendering the third game inconsequential, which the Tall Blacks won. New Zealand qualified to the wildcard tournament.[6]

Qualified teams

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After the end of wildcard tournament, the twelve teams that qualified for Beijing 2008 are:[2]

The italicized teams are the wildcards.

References

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