Romanian national basketball team

Romania România
Association	Federația Română de Baschet
FIBA member since	1932
FIBA world rankings	81.
Trainer
World championships
Participation in the finals	no
Best results
Olympic games
Participation in the finals	1
Best results	23rd place ( 1952 )
Continental championships
championship	European Championship
Participation in the finals	16
Best results	5th place ( 1957 & 1967 )
Homepage	frbaschet.ro
(As of May 2, 2014)

The Romanian national basketball team represents Romania in men's international basketball matches, such as international tournaments and friendly matches.

The team has so far qualified once for the Olympic Games and 16 times for European championships. Participation in a world championship has not yet been successful.

history

The national team of Romania joined FIBA - which was founded in the same year - in 1932 .

The first European Championship participations (1935–1951)

The Romanians took part in the first ever European basketball championship in 1935 . All three games were lost and they finished 10th and last. In the next participations, in 1947 and 1951, there was also no chance of reaching the final round, finishing in 10th and 13th place respectively.

Olympic basketball tournament 1952

Due to a bye, the national team played only two games at the 1952 Olympic basketball tournament in Helsinki :

• Canada - Romania 72 : 51
• Romania - Italy 39: 53

Due to the two defeats, the team missed the entry into the final round and was 23rd and last place in the tournament.

Notable successes at European Championships (1955–1961)

At the EM in 1955 , the team managed to advance to the final round for the first time. Of the four games in the preliminary round, only one was lost to the USSR . In the final round, they finally won two of the seven games and finished the EM in 7th place. The 1957 European Championship was concluded with a balanced record of five wins in five games. This was enough for a 5th place.

Establishment in European basketball (1963–1987)

Between 1963 and 1975 Romania took part in the European Championships without interruption and was thus an integral part of this competition. At the EM 1967 the 5th place was achieved again. With a record of six wins from nine games, it was also the most successful European Championship that Romania has ever played. This good performance could not be repeated in the following years, but the team managed to qualify for the continental competition until 1975 - eleven times in a row since 1955. After ten years without participation, they took part again in a European Championship in 1985 and 1987, finishing in 10th and 12th place respectively.

1987-present

The Romanian national team has not been able to qualify for a major international tournament since 1987. As one of four host countries, Romania is automatically qualified for the 2017 European Basketball Championship .

Known players

• Gheorghe Mureșan , was together with Manute Bol the tallest player (2.31 m) who was ever active in the NBA . He played for the New Jersey Nets and the Washington Bullets .
• Horia Demian , played 165 times for the national team.
• Andrei Folbert was the captain of the national team for 25 years and was elected MVP at the 1955 European Championship .

Performing in international competitions

World championships never qualified

Olympic games 1952 : 23rd place

European championships

1935 - 10th place 1947 - 10th place 1951 - 13th place 1955 - 07th place 1957 - 05th place 1959 - 08th place 1961 - 07th place 1963 - 11th place

1965 - 13th place 1967 - 05th place 1969 - 09th place 1971 - 08th place 1973 - 09th place 1975 - 11th place 1985 - 10th place 1987 - 12th place

Web links

• Official homepage of the Romanian Basketball Federation
• Profile of the national team on the FIBA Europa website
• Romanian national team on eurobasket.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistics Olympic basketball tournament 1952 , on linguasport.com. Retrieved May 2, 2014