1936 Olympic Games The
1936 Summer Olympics was the first tournament Poland took part in. They eventually placed an impressive fourth at the event, in the then 23 team tournament.
EuroBasket 1937 The
EuroBasket 1937 in
Riga, marked the first ever appearance for the national team at the
European Basketball Championship. In the preliminary round the Poles dropped their first match to
France, but rebounded with victories against
Latvia and
Czechoslovakia. They finished with a 2–1 record, and moved on to the semi-finals where they played
Lithuania. There they were defeated by the eventual champion Lithuanian squad 31–25, relegating them to the
bronze medal match. For the bronze, the team was defeated again by France to end their maiden run at the Eurobasket.
EuroBasket 1939 Two years later at
EuroBasket 1939 in
Kaunas, the competition format was a single round-robin without playoffs.
Latvia and
Lithuania both defeated Poland whereas the other five teams in the competition fell to the Poles. With Lithuania undefeated and Poland and Latvia tied with a record of 5–2, the loss to Latvia was decisive in pushing Poland to third place and the bronze.
EuroBasket 1946 Due to
World War II, the next European basketball championship was at
EuroBasket 1946 in
Geneva. The Poles started well, with a victory over
Luxembourg. They then lost their next two preliminary round matches to
Italy, and
Hungary to finish in third place of the four-team group. That result put them in the 7th–10th place classification semi-final, where they lost again, this time to
Belgium. In the 9th/10th place playoff, Poland defeated
England.
EuroBasket 1947 The
EuroBasket returned to the odd-year schedule with
EuroBasket 1947 in
Prague. Poland placed second in their preliminary group, losing only to eventual
silver medallist
Czechoslovakia en route to a 2–1 record. They then went 1–2 in their semi-final group, falling to the
gold medal Soviet Union team and bronze medal
Egypt. This put Poland in a 5th/6th place playoff against
France, who had been 1–2 in the opposite semi-final group. France went on to win, 62–29.
EuroBasket 1955 After an 8-year hiatus, Poland returned at
EuroBasket 1955 in
Budapest. They quickly showed that they could still play with the European field, winning all four of their preliminary round games to advance to the final round. Despite their mediocre 3–4 record in that round, the Poles had demonstrated that they could be effective against the best of the European pool with a 72–68 win over eventual runners-up
Czechoslovakia. They eventually finished 5th overall of the 18 teams in the tournament.
EuroBasket 1957 Two years later in
Sofia, Poland competed at
EuroBasket 1957. Despite being seeded into the same preliminary pool as the
Soviet Union, the Poles went 2–1 in the round-robin and advanced to the final round. There they lost their first six of seven games in that round, getting their first win in the last game of the round, against
France to finish the tournament in 7th place.
EuroBasket 1963 Five years later the national team hosted
EuroBasket 1963 in
Wrocław. They got off to a fast start winning their first match against
Spain 79–76. They fell to the
Soviet Union in their next match. But, eventually ran the table the rest of the way in their preliminary round group to finish with an 6–1 record to advance. In the semi-finals the Poles defeated
Yugoslavia, to get within a win of the gold medal. There they met up against the Soviet Union again, and were dominated 61–45 to instead take silver.
1964 Olympic Games As vice champion of the
EuroBasket, at the
1964 Summer Olympics, the Poles came off an impressive start as they finished 3rd out of 8 in the preliminary round. Overall, they finished 6th out of 16, ahead of
SFR Yugoslavia,
Uruguay and
Mexico, which were all major players at the global stage at that time.
1967 World Cup The
1967 World Cup was the first appearance for the national team to compete at the global tournament. The team finished 2–1 in their preliminary group, with victories against
Paraguay and
Puerto Rico to advance to the final round. There they finished their first ever trip to the World Cup with an subpar 2–4 record, placing 5th in the event.
1968 Olympic Games Just like at the last Summer Olympics in
Tokyo, the Poles finished the preliminary round at the
1968 event in
Mexico City with a winning record. Overall, they finished 6th out of 16. Just like at the
EuroBasket 1967, Poland won against
Bulgaria for its closest victory of the tournament.
Seventh Heaven (1987-1997) From 1987 to 1997, the national team only managed to qualify for the
European Basketball Championship three times out of a possible six. They finished in seventh place in each tournament in
1987,
1991, and
1997. Although after 1997 Poland would fail to qualify for the top European basketball event for the next decade.
The 10-year span After years of failed qualifications, Poland finally made their way back to the EuroBasket at the
2007 tournament. It was quite an unexpected achievement for the Poles. But, overall they did not make much noise. Because of injury, many key players including
Michał Ignerski and
Maciej Lampe did not compete at the event. The Poles lost all 3 games, but even in defeat they remained competitive losing by only 8 to a well-regarded
French team and by 9 to the
Italian squad.
EuroBasket 2009 The White and Red hosted the
EuroBasket 2009, making it the first time the national team qualified for consecutive EuroBasket tournaments since the mid 1980s. They got off to an impressive start putting away
Bulgaria in the first game 90–78. The team followed that up with another strong performance versus
Lithuania 86–75, before dropping their final game in preliminary play against
Turkey. With an 2–1 record the team was able to advance to the second round. There, the team came up short in group play with an 1–4 record and a 9th place finish overall at the event.
Later years (2009-2019) with Poland during
EuroBasket 2017 After 2009, the national team qualified for every
EuroBasket in the 2010s. But they could only manage to finish in the top half of the tournament once, that being in
2015.
2019 World Cup In 2019, the national team qualified for the
World Cup. It was their first qualification to a global event since
1980 Olympics in Moscow. During the
2019 FIBA World Cup, Poland was put into a group with group favourite
China, Ivory Coast, and Venezuela. After a convincing win over Venezuela, Poland upset the hosts 79-76 in front of a max-capacity crowd in Beijing. Poland was down 72-69 with 15 seconds left before Chinese NBA center
Zhou Qi made 2 straight turnovers allowing Poland to send the game into overtime.
Aaron Cel made a driving layup to put Poland up 78-76 and the upset was sealed when
Yi Jianlian missed the game-tying shot. Poland finished 3-0 in their group and moved onto the next round, where they defeated Russia 79-74 before losing to Argentina. In the quarter-finals they faced eventual champions Spain and narrowly lost 90-78, eventually finishing the tournament in 8th place.
EuroBasket 2022 At the
EuroBasket 2022 qualification,
Jeremy Sochan became the youngest player to ever play for Poland's national team. In his very first game, he led Poland over
Romania 88-81. He played 29 minutes in which he scored 18 points, including a four-point play (3 pointer plus foul and free throw) at the end and a game-deciding block. The Orly played in Group D held in
Prague. Poland started off with a win over co-host Czech Republic by 99-84. But in their second match, they fell back to Finland by 89-59. They later went back strong with their second win over Israel by 85-76. They won in their fourth match against the Netherlands 75-69. But in the fifth and final preliminary match, lost to Serbia by 96-69. In the knockout stage, they started their Final Phase campaign in the Round of 16 with a win over Ukraine by 93-86. In the quarter-finals, they stunned Slovenia by winning 90-87. But in the semi-finals they were unable to catch up and lost to France by 54-95. In the third place match, Poland fell behind to co-host Germany and lost by 69-82. Poland finished fourth in the final standings, it became Poland's strong finish for the first time since 1967.
EuroBasket 2025 Poland will co-host the
EuroBasket 2025 after being able to step in for Ukraine. Poland is currently playing in the qualifiers despite already earning an automatic qualification as co-host. Matches took place at the
Spodek in
Katowice. In the group stage, they won against Slovenia, Israel, and Iceland, and lost to France and Belgium. In the knockout stage, they reached the quarter-finals, finishing sixth, thanks to a win over Bosnia and Herzegovina and a loss to Turkey. ==Competitive record==