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After the World War II, the team steadily improved their rankings and came to be one of dominant forces of the world basketball in the 1970s and the 1980s, along with the United States and Soviet Union, capturing 13 World Cup and Olympic medals in total. After the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, national teams of the successor countries, particularly Serbia and Montenegro/Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, continued the "Yugoslav school" tradition and exhibited strong performance in international competitions.
At the Summer Olympic Games, Yugoslavia captured one gold medal (1980), took the silver medal on three occasions (1968, 76, 88) and captured the bronze medal once (1984).
At the FIBA World Cup, Yugoslavia captured three gold medals (1970, 1978 and 1990), three silver medals (1963, 1967, 1974) and two bronze medals (1982, 1986).
At the EuroBasket, Yugoslavia captured the gold medal five times (1973, 1975, 1977, 1989, 1991), were silver medalists on five occasions (1961, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1981), and captured the bronze medal four times (1963, 1979, 1987).
Yugoslavia made its European championship debut in EuroBasket 1947, the fifth edition of the tournament. The team placed 13th out of 14 teams in the competition, losing to the Soviet Union and Hungary in the preliminary round, beating the Netherlands but losing to Italy in the semifinal round (placing third in the three-way tie between the teams), and defeating Albania in the 13th/14th classification match.
EuroBasket 1953
Yugoslavia's second appearance was at EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow. They dropped an early 27–25 decision against Bulgaria but finished at 3–1 in their preliminary group. In the three-way tie-breaker with Bulgaria and Israel, Yugoslavia ended up in second place to advance to the final round. There, they won 3 but lost 4 to take 6th place overall in the 17-team tournament.
EuroBasket 1955
Yugoslavia again advanced to the final round at EuroBasket 1955 in Budapest, this time in sole second place with a 3–1 record in the preliminary round pool. Their final round performance was riddled with 6 losses in 7 games, but did include the high point of a 52–49 victory over eventual silver medallistCzechoslovakia on Yugoslavia's way to an 8th-place finish of the 18 entrants.
EuroBasket 1957
Yugoslavia's appearance at the EuroBasket 1957 tournament in Sofia resulted in a 2–1 record for the preliminary round and advancement to the final round robin. There, they proved capable of two wins, defeating Poland and France to finish at 2–5 for 6th place in the tournament.
The dominant years in FIBA competition
The Yugoslav national team of the late 1980s and early 1990s featured what was perhaps the greatest generation in the history of Yugoslav basketball. A common quip about basketball is: "The Americans invented it, the Yugoslavs perfected it." With such players as Dražen Petrović, Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoč, Dino Rađa, Predrag Danilović, Žarko Paspalj and Jure Zdovc the country was responsible for a wave of international NBA players in the 1990s. Many of the former Yugoslav players of this era were a part of the under-21 national team that won the FIBA World Junior Championships in 1987, defeating the U.S. both in pool play and in the final.
The 1991 team is regarded by Antonello Riva as the best team in European history.
"Note: Serbian national basketball team is a successor of the SFR Yugoslavia national basketball team; At the time of 1992, FR Yugoslavia was one of the successors (Later Serbian national basketball team); Although, none of these teams is a results successor of what has the SFR Yugoslavia national basketball team accomplished)". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)