Inside Brazil’s basketball team: A complete roster and more to know about 2024 Olympics team | Sporting News

Inside Brazil’s basketball team: A complete roster and more to know about 2024 Olympics team | Sporting News

August 5, 2024

Brazil meets Team USA in the 2024 Olympic men’s basketball quarterfinals at 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday. 

Brazil has not won a medal in men’s basketball since the 1964 Olympics. This year’s team slipped into the medal round after finishing 1-2 in Pool B. This team will create a few interesting matchups for Team USA, especially if Bruno Caboclo stays hot. 

The forward had 33 points and 18 rebounds in a 102-84 victory against Japan on Aug. 2. 

Will Brazil challenge Team USA, which won its pool play games by an average of 21.3 points per game? A look inside Brazil’s men’s basketball team. 

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Who are Brazil’s basketball coaches? 

Alexsandar Petrovic – a longtime Croatian basketball player and coach – is the coach for Team Brazil. He played on Yugoslavia’s bronze medal team in the 1984 Summer Olympics with Drazen Petrovic. Brazil’s assistant coaches are Helio Rubens Fiho, Bruno Savignani, and Tiago Splitter, who played seven NBA seasons through stints with San Antonio, Atlanta, and Philadelphia. 

Brazil men’s basketball roster, 2024 Olympics 

Gui Santos spent the last two years with Golden State and averaged 3.6 points in 23 games last season. Maozinha Peireira played seven games for Memphis last season. 

Several other players have experience. 

Bruno Caboclo, who played eight seasons in the NBA and averaged 4.2 points per game, was a former first-round pick in 2014 by Toronto. 

Raul Neto played 12 NBA seasons between four teams. Cristiano Felicio played six seasons with the Chicago Bulls from 2015-21, and Didi Louzada played three seasons between New Orleans and Portland from 2020-22. 

Marcel Huertas — the team captain — played three years with the Lakers from 2015-17. 

A look at the 12-man roster: 

Brazil 2024 men’s basketball roster                             

NO. POS NAME HT TEAM LEAGUE
2 PG Yago Dos Santos 5-10 Crvena zvezda ABA (Serbia)
6 C Cristiano Felicio 6-9 Granada Liga ACB
7 SG Didi Louzada 6-5 Flamengo NBB (Brazil)
8 SG Vitor Benite 6-4 Palencia Liga ACB
9 PG Marcelinho Huertas 6-3 Tenerife Liga ACB
11 SG Gui Santos 6-6 Golden State Warriors NBA
14 SF Leo Meindl 6-7 Alvark Tokyo Japan
23 PG Raul Neto 6-1 Fenerbahce EuroLeague
32 G Georginho de Paula 6-6 Ratiopharm Bundesliga
45 F Maozinha Pereira 6-6 Memphis Grizzlies NBA
51 PF Bruno Caboclo 6-9 Partizan ABA (Serbia)
99 PF Lucas Dias 6-9 Franca NBB (Brazil)

How Brazil reached the Olympic quarterfinals 

France beat Brazil 78-66 on July 27 in a game where Caboclo was held to zero points. Germany beat Brazil 86-73 on July 30 in a game where Brazil hit 10-of-26 from three-point range. 

Brazil beat Japan 102-84 in its final game and edged out Greece by one point in point differential to advance to the quarterfinals. That was just enough to get a shot in the medal round. 

Brazil basketball history in the Olympics 

This is Brazil’s 16th Olympic appearance, and the team advanced to the medal round after not qualifying for the Summer Olympics in 2020. 

Brazil won the bronze medal in 1948, 1960, and 1964. The 1960 team lost to Team USA 90-63 as part of a round-robin medal round format. Brazil has finished fifth in the men’s basketball tournament five times since 1980. 

Team USA is 9-0 all-time against Brazil in the Olympics, with the last meeting in 1996.                                                                 

YEAR RECORD PLACE
1936 1-3 9th
1948 7-1 Bronze
1952 4-4 6th
1956 3-4 6th
1960 6-2 Bronze
1964 6-3 Bronze
1968 6-3 4th
1972 5-4 7th
1980 4-3 5th
1984 3-4 9th
1988 5-3 5th
1992 4-4 5th
1996 3-5 6th
2012 4-2 5th
2016 2-3 9th
2024 1-2