The 1949 South American Basketball Championship was the 14th edition of this regional tournament. It was held in Asunción, Paraguay and won by the Uruguay national basketball team. 6 teams competed.
Each team played the other five teams once, for a total of five games played by each team and 15 overall in the preliminary round. Ties in the standings were broken by head-to-head results, as only a tie for first would have resulted in a final match.