Early years (1920s–1930s) Estonia played their first ever international match against their Baltic neighbors Latvia, on 29 April 1924, a 20–16 defeat in Riga. Ten years later, on 30 November 1934, Estonia became a member of
FIBA. Two years after that, the national team played in their first international tournament at the
1936 Olympic Games, held in
Berlin. It was the first
Olympic tournament to hold basketball as an official medal event. Led by head coach
Herbert Niiler, Estonia played their opening match of the tournament against
France, where the team came away with a 34–29 win. The national team lost their subsequent second round game to the
United States 28–52, but passed the consolation round and faced the
Philippines in the third round, losing 22–39. at
EuroBasket 1937. Estonia participated at the
European Basketball Championship for the first time in
1937. The team won its first game against
Egypt 44–15, but failed to advance past the group stage after suffering a 15–20 defeat against
Lithuania, and a 20–30 defeat against
Italy. Estonia finished the tournament to place fifth in the final rankings, after defeating
Czechoslovakia 30–20 and
Latvia 41–19. Two years later at the
EuroBasket 1939, the tournament used a different format from the previous championship, with eight teams facing off in a round-robin competition. Estonia finished the tournament with a (4–3) record and again finished in fifth place at the event.
Heino Veskila was the tournament's scoring leader averaging 16.7 points per game. In 1940, Estonia was
occupied by the Soviet Union and the team was disbanded.
National team restored (1990s) After the
restoration of independence, the
Estonian Basketball Association rejoined FIBA in 1991. Estonia
qualified for
EuroBasket 1993, held in Germany. Despite missing star players
Martin Müürsepp and
Tiit Sokk, the team, coached by
Jaak Salumets won their group in the preliminary round, finishing ahead of
Slovenia,
Belgium, and hosts and eventual champions
Germany. In the second round, Estonia finished third in their group and advanced to the quarter-finals, where the team lost to
Russia 61–82 to be eliminated. In the classification rounds, Estonia defeated
Bosnia and Herzegovina 99–91 and lost to
Spain 80–119, finishing the championship in sixth place with a (6–5) record.
2000s–2010s Estonia once again qualified for the EuroBasket, after failing to qualify for the tournament on three occasions after 1993. The team went (7–3) during the
qualification period to reach
EuroBasket 2001, held in Turkey. Coached by
Üllar Kerde, Estonia lost all three of their preliminary round matches against Germany,
FR Yugoslavia and
Croatia, failing to advance past the group stage and finishing the championship with a disappointing (0–3) record and a 14th place finish. Martin Müürsepp led the team in scoring with 18.3 points per game, while
Margus Metstak collected 6.0 rebounds per game, and
Rauno Pehka and
Tanel Tein averaged 2.7 assists per game. After 2001, Estonia failed to qualify for another major international basketball tournament for 14 years. Although the team competed at the second tier
Division B competition in 2011, winning their group. coached Estonia from 2004 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2019. Coached by Tiit Sokk, Estonia
qualified for
EuroBasket 2015, with preliminary round matches held in
Riga, Latvia. Estonia's first two performances were poor as the team suffered heavy defeats in matches against
Czech Republic 57–80 and Belgium 55–84. However, the team bounced back with a 78–71 victory over
Ukraine, their first EuroBasket victory since 1993. The next game saw Estonia defeated in a close game by Lithuania 62–64. In their final group phase match, Estonia were up against Latvia, which resulted in a 64–75 loss and failing to advance to the knockout stage. Estonia finished the championship in 20th place with a (1–4) record.
Gregor Arbet was the team's scoring leader at 11.6 points per game, while
Siim-Sander Vene averaged 6.4 rebounds and
Sten Sokk contributed 4.2 assists per game. In
qualification for
EuroBasket 2017, Estonia won their first two games against,
Belarus, and
Portugal to put the team at a record of (2–0). However, Estonia dropped three of their final four matches to eliminate the team from qualifying. After missing their opportunity to reach EuroBasket 2017, Estonia turned their focus toward qualifying for the
2019 FIBA World Cup. The team first went through
European Pre-Qualifiers, where they accumulated a (3–1) record during the process, to advance. Entering the first round of
European Qualifiers, Estonia split their first four matches for a record of (2–2), before losing their final two games to
Great Britain and
Greece respectively. Although by defeating Great Britain in their first match of the qualifiers between the two, it proved enough for Estonia to move on to the second and final phase of European qualifiers. There, the team lost their first four games of the round, before managing to salvage their final two matches before being eliminated. In October 2019, the Estonian Basketball Association named
Jukka Toijala as the new head coach of the national team.
2020s Estonia competed in the
EuroBasket 2022 with group phase games played in Milan, Italy. The team started the tournament with a 62–83 loss to the hosts, followed by two narrow defeats against Ukraine (73–74) and Croatia (70–73). Estonia then won 94–62 against Great Britain before losing to Greece 69–90. The team failed to advance to the round of 16 and finished the tournament in 19th place.
Maik-Kalev Kotsar averaged the team-best 12.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, while
Kerr Kriisa led the team with 5.8 assists per game. On 22 May 2025 Estonia was selected as one of the co-hosts of the
EuroBasket 2029, giving Estonia automatic qualification as co-host. Group phase matches will take place in
Tallinn at the
Unibet Arena. ==Competitive record==