Basketball at the 1952 Summer Olympics

As in 1948, there were 23 nations entered in Olympic basketball. Ten (10) nations were seeded into the main tournament. The other 13 teams were separated into three groups, which played a round-robin tournament within each group, although a team was eliminated after two losses, making them effectively double-elimination groups. This advanced a further six teams to the main tournament. The 16 teams were then separated into four groups of four teams each, which played round-robin games to advance two teams from each group to the semi-final groups. There were two semi-final groups of four teams each, again advancing the top two teams from each group to the semi-final matches, again via round-robins.

The games were held indoors, mostly at the Tennispalatsi, or Tennis Palace, although the final rounds were played at the Messuhalli II, in Helsinki. The Messuhalli (or Exhibition Hall) I and II also hosted boxing, gymnastics, weightlifting, and wrestling at the 1952 Olympics. Tennispalatsi was built in 1938, in preparation for the 1940 Helsinki Olympics, which were never held, and it still exists, now used as a cultural and recreational venue, with multiple movie screens. Messuhalli was built in 1935 in the Töölö District of Helsinki, and was later used for concerts, banquets, and sporting events. As of 2024, it is the home arena of the Torpan Pojat and Helsinki Seagulls basketball teams, now renamed as Töölö Sports Hall.

As in 1936 and 1948, the gold medal was won by the United States, winning its third of seven consecutive Olympic basketball gold medals. The US won the final game over the Soviet Union, making its Olympic basketball début, after having also defeated the USSR in semi-final group play.