Basketball at the 1952 Summer Olympics was the third appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. 23 nations entered the competition.
The top six teams at the 1948 Summer Olympics qualified automatically, as did the winners of the 1950 FIBA World Championship (Argentina), the top two teams at the 1951 EuroBasket (USSR and Czechoslovakia), and the host country (Finland). Thirteen other nations competed in a qualifying round to determine the last six places in the sixteen-team Olympic tournament.
Nations that lost two games in the qualifying rounds were eliminated. When there were only two teams left in each group, those teams advanced to the main tournament.
Group A consisted of Cuba, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Switzerland.
Group B consisted of Hungary, Greece, Israel, and the Philippines.
Group C consisted of Canada, Italy, Turkey, Romania, and Egypt.
The top two teams in each group advanced to the quarterfinal round.
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The top two teams in each quarterfinals advanced to the semifinals. The other two teams in each quarterfinals played in the fifth through eighth place classification.
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Classification 5âÂÂ8 semifinals <section begin=E3 /><section end=E3 /> <section begin=E4 /><section end=E4 />
Medal round semifinals <section begin=E1 /><section end=E1 /> <section begin=E2 /><section end=E2 />
7th place final <section begin=F3 /><section end=F3 />
5th place final <section begin=F4 /><section end=F4 />
Bronze medal match <section begin=F1 /><section end=F1 />
Gold medal match <section begin=F2 /><section end=F2 />
For the team rosters see: Basketball at the 1952 Summer Olympics â Men's team rosters.
Each country was allowed to enter one team of 14 players and they all were eligible for participation. A total number of 317 players were entered.
A total of 301(*) basketball players from 23 nations competed at the Helsinki Games:
<small>(*) NOTE: There are only players counted, which participated in one game at least. Up to now only two reserve player can be named, 14 reserve players are unknown.</small>