Here you have the basic information about the USA Basketball team performances at the Summer Olympic Games since Berlin 1936, the first edition of the Olympics where the sport of basketball was included.

United States Basketball was always one of the top 3 teams in the Olympics with the only exception of Moscow 1980 where USA, Argentina, Canada, China, Mexico and Puerto Rico all qualified for the Olympics, but chose to not participate in the Games in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

USA Basketball won 12 of 16 possible Gold Medals with its brightest point in Barcelona 1992 where the original "Dream Team", the first with NBA players, averaged an Olympic record of 117.3 points a game and won the competition by an average of 43.8 points. It is considered the best basketball squad ever with an endless list of glories of the sport like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley among others. The closest any opponent could come was 32 points.

Despite the dominance of the United States through history, the team is still trying to recover from the shock of being defeated by Argentina (led by Spurs star Manu Ginobili) 89-81 in the semifinals of Athens 2004. As a result, USA basketball has already started a program to have a consolidated team with committed players for the 2008 Olympic Games.

USA Basketball at the Olympic Games - Summary
Olympic Games		Golden Medal	Silver Medal	Bronze Medal
	Beijing 2008	USA	Spain	Argentina
	Athens 2004	Argentina	Italy	USA
	Sydney 2000	USA	France	Lithuania
	Atlanta 1996	USA	Yugoslavia	Lithuania
	Barcelona 1992	USA	Croatia	Lithuania
	Seoul 1988	Soviet Union	Yugoslavia	USA
	Los Angeles 1984	USA	Spain	Yugoslavia
	Moscow 1980	Yugoslavia	Italy	Soviet Union
	Montreal 1976	USA	Yugoslavia	Soviet Union
	Munich 1972	Soviet Union	USA	Cuba
	Mexico 1968	USA	Yugoslavia	Soviet Union
	Tokyo 1964	USA	Soviet Union	Brazil
	Rome 1960	USA	Soviet Union	Brazil
	Melbourne 1956	USA	Soviet Union	Uruguay
	Helsinki 1952	USA	Soviet Union	Uruguay
	London 1948	USA	France	Brazil
	Berlin 1936	USA	Canada	Mexico

Basketball Olympic Medals Summary
Total Medals	Golden Medals	Silver Medals	Bronze Medals
Usa Basketball 15 Medals	13 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1976 1984 1992 1996 2000 2008	1 1972	2 1988 2004

Related:
Basketball in the Olympic Games.