Poland men's national basketball team

Men's national basketball team representing Poland
the men's team

The Poland men's national basketball team (Reprezentacja Polski w koszykówce) represents Poland in international basketball competitions. They are controlled by the Polish Basketball Federation (PZKosz). Poland has competed at the EuroBasket on 28 occasions, with their best performance at the tournament coming in 1963, as hosts, finishing as runners up. Poland has competed six times at the Olympic Games, with their best finish being fourth place at the first edition of the event in 1936. Poland have also made two appearances at the FIBA World Cup, with their first coming in 1967, and their second occurring 52 years later in 2019.

The 1936 Summer Olympics was the first tournament Poland took part in. They eventually placed an impressive fourth at the event, in the then 23 team tournament.

The EuroBasket 1937 in Riga, marked the first ever appearance for the national team at the European Basketball Championship. In the preliminary round the Poles dropped their first match to France, but rebounded with victories against Latvia and Czechoslovakia. They finished with an 2–1 record, and moved on to the semi finals where they played Lithuania. There they were defeated by the eventual champion Lithuanian squad 31–25, relegating them to the bronze medal match. For the bronze, the team was defeated again by France to end their maiden run at the Eurobasket.

Two years later at EuroBasket 1939 in Kaunas, the competition format was a single round robin without playoffs. Latvia and Lithuania both defeated Poland whereas the other five teams in the competition fell to the Poles. With Lithuania undefeated and Poland and Latvia tied with a record of 5–2, the loss to Latvia was decisive in pushing Poland to third place and the bronze.

Due to World War II, the next European basketball championship was at EuroBasket 1946 in Geneva. The Poles started well, with a victory over Luxembourg. They then lost their next two preliminary round matches to Italy, and Hungary to finish in third place of the four team group. That result put them in the 7th–10th place classification semi final, where they lost again, this time to Belgium. In the 9th/10th place playoff, Poland defeated England.

The EuroBasket returned to the odd year schedule with EuroBasket 1947 in Prague. Poland placed second in their preliminary group, losing only to eventual silver medallist Czechoslovakia en route to a 2–1 record. They then went 1–2 in their semi final group, falling to the gold medal Soviet Union team and bronze medal Egypt. This put Poland in a 5th/6th place playoff against France, who had been 1–2 in the opposite semi final group. France went on to win, 62–29.

After an 8 year hiatus, Poland returned at EuroBasket 1955 in Budapest. They quickly showed that they could still play with the European field, winning all four of their preliminary round games to advance to the final round. Despite their mediocre 3–4 record in that round, the Poles had demonstrated that they could be effective against the best of the European pool with a 72–68 win over eventual runners up Czechoslovakia. They eventually finished 5th overall of the 18 teams in the tournament.

Two years later in Sofia, Poland competed at EuroBasket 1957. Despite being seeded into the same preliminary pool as the Soviet Union, the Poles went 2–1 in the round robin and advanced to the final round. There they lost their first six of seven games in that round, getting their first win in the last game of the round, against France to finish the tournament in 7th place.

Five years later the national team hosted EuroBasket 1963 in Wroclaw. They got off to a fast start winning their first match against Spain 79–76. They fell to the Soviet Union in their next match. But, eventually ran the table the rest of the way in their preliminary round group to finish with an 6–1 record to advance. In the semi finals the Poles defeated Yugoslavia, to get within a win of the gold medal. There they met up against the Soviet Union again, and were dominated 61–45 to instead take silver.

As vice champion of the EuroBasket, at the 1964 Summer Olympics, the Poles came off an impressive start as they finished 3rd out of 8 in the preliminary round. Overall, they finished 6th out of 16, ahead of SFR Yugoslavia, Uruguay and Mexico, which were all major players at the global stage at that time.

The 1967 World Cup was the first appearance for the national team to compete at the global tournament. The team finished 2–1 in their preliminary group, with victories against Paraguay and Puerto Rico to advance to the final round. There they finished their first ever trip to the World Cup with an subpar 2–4 record, placing 5th in the event.

Just like at the last Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the Poles finished the preliminary round at the 1968 event in Mexico City with a winning record. Overall, they finished 6th out of 16. Just like at the EuroBasket 1967, Poland won against Bulgaria for its closest victory of the tournament.

From 1987 to 1997, the national team only managed to qualify for the European Basketball Championship three times out of a possible six. They finished in seventh place in each tournament in 1987, 1991, and 1997. Although after 1997 Poland would fail to qualify for the top European basketball event for the next decade.

After years of failed qualifications, Poland finally made their way back to the EuroBasket at the 2007 tournament. It was quite an unexpected achievement for the Poles. But, overall they did not make much noise. Because of injury, many key players including Michał Ignerski and Maciej Lampe did not compete at the event. The Poles lost all 3 games, but even in defeat they remained competitive losing by only 8 to a well regarded French team and by 9 to the Italian squad.

The White and Red hosted the EuroBasket 2009, making it the first time the national team qualified for consecutive EuroBasket tournaments since the mid 1980s. They got off to an impressive start putting away Bulgaria in the first game 90–78. The team followed that up with another strong performance versus Lithuania 86–75, before dropping their final game in preliminary play against Turkey. With an 2–1 record the team was able to advance to the second round. There, the team came up short in group play with an 1–4 record and a 9th place finish overall at the event.

After 2009, the national team qualified for every EuroBasket in the 2010s. But they could only manage to finish in the top half of the tournament once, that being in 2015.

In 2019, the national team qualified for the World Cup. It was their first qualification to a global event since 1980 Olympics in Moscow. During the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Poland was put into a group with group favourite China, Ivory Coast, and Venezuela. After a convincing win over Venezuela, Poland upset the hosts 79 76 in front of a max capacity crowd in Beijing. Poland was down 72 69 with 15 seconds left before Chinese NBA center Zhou Qi made 2 straight turnovers allowing Poland to send the game into overtime. Aaron Cel made a driving layup to put Poland up 78 76 and the upset was sealed when Yi Jianlian missed the game tying shot. Poland finished 3 0 in their group and moved onto the next round, where they defeated Russia 79 74 before losing to Argentina. In the quarterfinals they faced eventual champions Spain and narrowly lost 90 78, eventually finishing the tournament in 8th place.

At the EuroBasket 2022 qualification, Jeremy Sochan became the youngest player to ever play for Poland's national team. In his very first game, he led Poland over Romania 88 81. He played 29 minutes in which he scored 18 points, including a four point play (3 pointer plus foul and free throw) at the end and a game deciding block. The Orly played in Group D held in Prague. Poland started off with a win over co host Czech Republic by 99 84. But in their second match, they fell back to Finland by 89 59. They later went back strong with their second win over Israel by 85 76. They won in their fourth match against the Netherlands 75 69. But in the fifth and final preliminary match, lost to Serbia by 96 69. In the knockout stage, they started their Final Phase campaign in the Round of 16 with a win over Ukraine by 93 86. In the quarter finals, they stunned Slovenia by winning 90 87. But in the semi finals they were unable to catch up and lost to France by 54 95. In the third place match, Poland fell behind to co host Germany and lost by 69 82. Poland finished fourth in the final standings, it became Poland's strong finish for the first time since 1967.

Poland will co host the EuroBasket 2025 after being able to step in for Ukraine. Poland is currently playing in the qualifiers despite already earning an automatic qualification as co host. Matches will be held at the Spodek in Katowice.

Roster for the EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers matches on 22 and 26 February 2024 against Lithuania and North Macedonia.

Slovenia v Poland – Highlights – EuroBasket 2022 (Quarter finals) Youtube. com video