Czechoslovakia national basketball team

The Czechoslovakian national basketball team was the basketball side that represented Czechoslovakia in international competitions. After the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia set up their own national teams.

The Czechoslovakian side came in third place at the first European basketball championship, the EuroBasket 1935 held by the International Basketball Federation's FIBA Europe continental federation. They defeated France in the preliminary round to advance to the semifinals. There they lost to Spain, resulting in a playoff for third place with Switzerland which the Czechoslovakians won 25–23.

In the EuroBasket 1937 competition, the Czechoslovakians finished seventh of eight teams. Their preliminary group included the powerful French, Polish, and Latvian teams, each of which defeated Czechoslovakia in the preliminary round. The Czechoslovakians then faced Estonia in the classification semifinals, losing again. Their final match was against Egypt in the 7th/8th playoff; since Egypt had withdrawn during preliminary play, Czechoslovakia received their only win by default.

Czechoslovakia returned to European competition with EuroBasket 1946. They started off well in a tournament notably lacking the Baltic countries that had dominated the pre-war competitions. Defeating Switzerland and then Belgium, the Czechoslovakian team placed first in the preliminary round group of three. They moved on to the semifinal round, facing the Hungarians. A 42–28 win secured a place in the championship game for Czechoslovakia. In that game, they played the undefeated Italy. After training 18–21 at halftime, Czechoslovakia came back to win the game 34–32 to win their first European championship.

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