Los Angeles, California, USA • July 29 - August 10, 1984

Basketball, the sport invented 93 years prior in Springfield, Mass., made its first Olympic appearance on its native soil. Waltzing past all opposition, both the USA men's and women's basketball teams captured gold medals. It was the first time in Olympic basketball history that a single nation won the men's and women's tournaments in the same Olympiad.

But just as the 1980 Olympic basketball suffered from the USA's decision to not participate, the 1984 Olympics suffered because the Soviet bloc countries decided not to participate. Regardless, the 1984 American men, coached by Indiana's Bob Knight, dominated and drew favorable comparisons to the 1960 USA team which many believe was the best USA Olympic team ever.

Man-handling China in the opener 97-49, all 12 U.S. team members scored while Alvin Robertson was high scorer with 18 points. Two days later, Canada was bettered by the Americans by 21 points, 89-68, as Michael Jordan paced the U.S. attack with 20 points. With all 12 U.S. players? again managing points, the U.S., behind Patrick Ewing's 17-point, nine-rebound effort, crushed Uruguay 104-68. France fell next, 120-62, while Steve Alford led the offense with 18 points and again all 12 U.S. players scored. Finishing pool play 5-0 after knocking off Spain 101-68, the U.S. only led 46-41 at halftime despite Jordan scoring 18 first half points. Spain pulled to within three, 51-48 with 16:04 to play, but a 15-2 run by the U.S. put the game out of reach. Jordan, who injured his ankle in the second half, finished with 24 points. Behind Alford's 17 points and Jordan's 14 points, the U.S. slipped past West Germany in its closest contest of the Games, 78-67. Bettering Canada for the second time in the Games, Knight's squad advanced to the gold medal game after recording a 78-59 semifinal win as Chris Mullin scored 20 points. The expected USA-Yugoslavia finals match-up never materialized after Spain upended Yugoslavia 74-61 in the semifinals.

Shooting 63.9 percent from the floor, the American men captured their ninth Olympic title with a convincing 96-65 victory over Spain in the gold medal game. Opening a comfortable lead early, the U.S. was led to victory by Jordan's 20 points, while Wayman Tisdale added 14 and Sam Perkins scored 12.

The U.S. team hit 55.7 percent of their shots in the tournament--the highest percentage any U.S. Olympic team had recorded since they started keeping Olympic field goal shooting statistics in 1964. At the other end, the Americans limited their eight opponents to a 38.9 percentage from the field and won by an average of 32.1 points.

Jordan took his first step toward international stardom by leading the USA to the gold with a team high 17.1 points-per-game average. Mullin added 11.6 ppg., while Tisdale led the team in rebounding averaging 6.4 rpg. Ewing was the tournament's leading shot blocker with 18, and Leon Wood dished-out 63 assists to lead the 1984 Olympics in assists.

1984 U.S. MEN'S OLYMPIC TEAM ROSTER

1984 U.S. MEN'S OLYMPIC TEAM CUMULATIVE STATISTICS