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The 1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team competed in the Games of the XVII Olympiad in
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, representing the
United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...
. The USA team, coached by
California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...
head coach Pete Newell, dominated the competition, winning its games by an average of 42.4 points per game. The team is considered by many to be the best
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level
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
team of all time, and was elected to the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...
as a unit, in 2010.


Roster


Olympic trials

Trials for the team were held in March and April 1960, in
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, at the Denver Coliseum. The trials were conducted in the form of an eight team tournament, including teams from the reigning NCAA National Champions, the
Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree, ...
, a team of
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
All-Stars featuring stars such as
Jerry West Jerry Alan West (May 28, 1938 – June 12, 2024) was an American basketball player and executive. He played professionally for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and is widely regarded as one of the greatest ...
and
Oscar Robertson Oscar Palmer Robertson (born November 24, 1938), nicknamed "the Big O", is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Robertson played ...
, an NAIA All-Star team, and the AAU Champions, the Peoria Caterpillar Cats. The NCAA All-Stars won the competition convincingly, and so Pete Newell was named the team's head coach, with Warren Womble as his assistant. The trials came at a time when the AAU and NCAA were wrestling for control of
USA Basketball USA Basketball (USAB) is a non-profit organization and the governing body for basketball in the United States. The organization represents the United States in FIBA, and the men's and women's national basketball teams in the United States ...
, and the make-up of the team represented that uneasy truce, as the team was made up of seven collegiate stars, four AAU players, and one representative of the
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(guard Adrian Smith). This compromise meant that many top college players were left off the team, including Ohio State's
John Havlicek John Joseph Havlicek (often nicknamed Hondo) ( ; April 8, 1940 – April 25, 2019) was an American professional basketball player who spent his entire career with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A swingman, Hav ...
and Providence guard
Lenny Wilkens Leonard Randolph Wilkens (born October 28, 1937) is an American former professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been inducted three times into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, fi ...
.


Olympic tournament

The team went 8–0 in the Olympic basketball tournament, held in
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, averaging 101.9 points per game and holding their opponents to 59.5. Five Americans averaged double-figures in scoring - Oscar Robertson (17.3),
Jerry Lucas Jerry Ray Lucas (born March 30, 1940) is an American former basketball player. He was a nationally awarded high school player, national college star at Ohio State University, and 1960 Olympic medal, gold medal Olympian and international player be ...
(16.8), Jerry West (14.1),
Terry Dischinger Terry Gilbert Dischinger ( ; November 21, 1940 – October 9, 2023) was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Dischinger was a three-time NBA All-Star and the 1963 NBA Rookie of the Year, after ...
(11.3) and Adrian Smith (10.9). Lucas was the star of the medal round, as he scored 21 points in the gold medal game against
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, after having scored 26 points in the previous game against host
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.


Results

* USA 88,
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54 *USA 125,
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66 *USA 107,
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63 *USA 104,
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42 *USA 108,
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50 *USA 81,
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57 *USA 112,
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81 *USA 90,
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63


Legacy

The 1960 team is thought to be one of the best
amateur sports Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. The distinction is made between amateur sporting participants and professional sports, professional sporting participants, who are paid for the time t ...
teams in basketball history. Nine members of the squad went on to play in the
NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
and four players from the team – Robertson, Lucas, West and
Walt Bellamy Walter Jones Bellamy (July 24, 1939 – November 2, 2013) was an American professional basketball player. He played 14 seasons as a center in the National Basketball Association, playing for four different teams. As a star for Indiana University ...
– have individually been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, as have head coach Pete Newell and Dutch Lonborg, who was on Newell's staff as team manager. Other career distinctions by team members include Robertson's League MVP Award in 1963–64. Dischinger's 1963
NBA Rookie of the Year Award The National Basketball Association's Rookie of the Year is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given to the top rookie(s) of the regular season. Initiated following the 1952–53 NBA season, it confers the Eddie Gottlieb Tr ...
(an award also received by Robertson (1961), Bellamy (1962), and Lucas(1964), Adrian Smith's
NBA All-Star Game MVP The NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player (MVP) is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given to the player(s) voted best of the annual All-Star Game. The award was established in 1953 when NBA officials decided to ...
in 1966, and West's NBA Finals MVP in 1969. Eight members were later selected to at least one NBA All-Star Game ( Bob Boozer, Darrall Imhoff and Adrian Smith were NBA All-Star Game participants during their careers. In total, there were 43 future All-Star berths amongst the teammates. The team was elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984. In 2010, along with the "Dream Team," the 1960 US Olympic men's basketball team was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a unit. The election marks only the seventh and eighth teams so honored.Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2010
Retrieved on April 11, 2010.


See also

*
1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...
*
Basketball at the 1960 Summer Olympics Basketball at the 1960 Summer Olympics was the fifth appearance of the sport of Basketball at the Summer Olympics, basketball as an official Olympic medal event. 16 nations were admitted into the Olympic tournament, with many others being elimin ...
* United States at the 1960 Summer Olympics *
United States men's national basketball team The USA Basketball Men's National Team, commonly known as Team USA and the United States men's national basketball team, is the basketball team representing the United States. It is the most successful men's team in international competition, ...


References


External links


Team profile at USA Basketball official siteUS Olympic Hall of Fame Class of 1984 page
{{Basketball Hall of Fame
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
United States at the Olympic men's basketball tournament Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees olympic