About

The Argentina national basketball team, officially nicknamed El Alma Argentina (Spanish: The Argentine Soul), represents Argentina in international men's basketball and is controlled by the Argentine Basketball Federation. Argentina is the only national team in the FIBA Americas zone that has won the quintuplet crown: FIBA World Cup (they won the first edition, in 1950), Olympic Gold Medal (2004) (the highest honor and most important title of Argentina in the history of Argentina Basketball Men's Senior National Team), FIBA Diamond Ball (2008), FIBA AmeriCup (2001 and 2011) and Pan American Gold Medal (1995). They have also won 13 South American Basketball Championships, as well as many youth championships. The Argentine representative was also the first to defeat a United States national team with a full squad of NBA players. They did so by 87–80 in the 2002 FIBA World Championship held in Indianapolis. In that tournament, Argentina came second behind FR Yugoslavia, losing the final in overtime. Due to the series of good results since the beginning of the 2000s (decade), Argentina reached the first position in the FIBA Men's Ranking at the end of the 2008 Olympic Games. Argentina is a founding member of the International Federation of Basketball (FIBA) and has South America's longest basketball tradition.