Basketball contests at the 1964 Summer Olympics was the sixth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It took place at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan from October 11 to October 23. The United States defeated the Soviet Union to win their sixth consecutive gold medal at this event, while Brazil earned the bronze against Puerto Rico.
Results
{| class=wikitable
! Event
! style="background-color:gold" | Gold
! style="background-color:silver" | Silver
! style="background-color:#cc9966" | Bronze
|-valign="top"
| Men's basketball
| valign=top | <br>Jim Barnes<br>Bill Bradley<br>Larry Brown<br>Joe Caldwell<br>Mel Counts<br>Richard Davies<br>Walt Hazzard<br>Lucious Jackson<br>John McCaffrey<br>Jeff Mullins<br>Jerry Shipp<br>George Wilson
| valign=top | <br>Valdis Muižnieks<br>Mykola Bahley<br>Armenak Alachachian<br>Alexandr Travin<br>Viacheslav Khrynin<br>Jānis Krūmiņš<br>Levan Moseshvili<br>Yury Korneev<br>Alexsandr Petrov<br>Gennadi Volnov<br>Jaak Lipso<br>Juris Kalniņš
| valign=top | <br>Amaury Antônio Pasos<br>Wlamir Marques<br>Ubiratan Pereira Maciel<br>Carlos Domingos Massoni<br>Friedrich Wilhelm Braun<br>Rosa Branca<br>Jatyr Eduardo Schall<br>Edson Bispo dos Santos<br>Antônio Salvador Sucar<br>Victor Mirshauswka<br>Sérgio de Toledo Machado<br>José Edvar Simões
|}
Qualification
Automatic qualifications were granted to the host country and the first eight places at the previous tournament. Additional spots were decided by various continental tournaments held by FIBA plus two additional intercontinental tournaments that granted six extra berths total, after the withdrawal of United Arab Republic and Czechoslovakia.
{| class="wikitable" width=850
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! width=28%|Means of qualification !! width=25%|Date !! width=25%|Venue !! width=7%|Berths !! width=15%|Qualified
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| Host nation || || || style="text-align:center;"|1 ||
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| rowspan="8"| 1960 Summer Olympics || rowspan="8"| 26 August–10 September 1960 || rowspan="8"| Rome || rowspan="8" style="text-align:center;"|<del>8</del> 7||
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| rowspan="2"| 1963 Pan American Games || rowspan="2"| 23 April–3 May 1963 || rowspan="2"| São Paulo || rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|2||
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| FIBA Africa Championship 1964 || 4–8 March 1964 || Casablanca || style="text-align:center;"|<del>1</del> 0 ||
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| rowspan="2"| European Pre-Olympic Tournament || rowspan="2"| 4–13 June 1964 || rowspan="2"| Geneva || rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|2||
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| rowspan="4"| Pan-Continental Pre-Olympic Tournament || rowspan="4"| 25 September–3 October 1964 || rowspan="4"| Yokohama || rowspan="4" style="text-align:center;"|<del>2</del> 4||
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! Total !! colspan="2"| !! 16 !!
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- Withdrew from the tournament.
- Replacement teams.
Format
- Two groups of eight teams are formed, where the top two from each group compete for the medals in a knockout round.
- The remaining places are defined as follows:
- Fifth through eighth places are decided in a separate bracket between the third and fourth places from each group in a separate bracket.
- Ninth through sixteenth places are decided between the fifth through eighth places from each group in separate brackets.
Squads
For the team rosters see: Basketball at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's team rosters.
Preliminary round
The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals, while the remaining teams compete for 5th through 16th places in separate brackets. Both group leaders, the United States and the Soviet Union advanced undefeated to the knockout stage.
Group A
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October 11
October 12
October 13
October 14
October 16
October 17
October 18
Group B
thumb|Finnish basketball team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics
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October 11
October 12
October 13
October 14
October 16
October 17
October 18
Knockout stage
Championship playoffs
Classification brackets
5th–8th Place
9th–12th Place
13th–16th Place
Awards
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
!1964 Olympic Basketball Champions
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| <br /> United States <br /> Sixth title
|}
Final standings
{|class=wikitable
|-
!Rank !!width=150px|Team !!width=20px|W !!width=20px|L
|-align=center
| ||align=left| || 9 || 0
|-align=center
| ||align=left| || 8 || 1
|-align=center
| ||align=left| || 6 || 3
|-align=center
| 4th ||align=left| || 5 || 4
|-align=center
| 5th ||align=left| || 6 || 3
|-align=center
| 6th ||align=left| || 5 || 4
|-align=center
| 7th ||align=left| || 6 || 3
|-align=center
| 8th ||align=left| || 4 || 5
|-align=center
| 9th ||align=left| || 4 || 5
|-align=center
| 10th ||align=left| || 4 || 5
|-align=center
| 11th ||align=left| || 4 || 5
|-align=center
| 12th ||align=left| || 3 || 6
|-align=center
| 13th ||align=left| || 4 || 5
|-align=center
| 14th ||align=left| || 1 || 8
|-align=center
| 15th ||align=left| || 3 || 6
|-align=center
| 16th ||align=left| || 0 || 9
|}