Olympics

These 25 Players Scored The Most Points in a Single Olympic Basketball Game

Luka Doncic has had a couple great years on the basketball court. He was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 2019 and upped his game in his second and third years in the league pushing himself into the league’s top tier of players. His legendary rise continued when he made a splash in his country’s first ever Olympic game, he led Slovenia with 48 points in a blowout win over Argentina.

Scoring 48 points in any basketball game is an amazing feat, but doing it in the international game where the defense is tighter, the offense is more team-oriented and the game is a full eight minutes shorter makes the accomplishment even more opening. That said, if there was a player that we would make a bet on at a Genesis online casino in Canada, Doncic would be on that very short list. Speaking of short lists, Doncic’s offensive explosion made us curious to who owns the all-time single-game scoring records at the Olympics. Don’t look any further.

Olympic Single Game Most Points (Single Game)
Rank Points Player Country Olympics
1 55 Oscar Schmidt Brazil 1988
2 48 Luka Doncic Slovenia 2020
2 48 Eddie Palubinskas Australia 1976
4 46 Oscar Schmidt Brazil 1988
4 46 Oscar Schmidt Brazil 1988
6 45 Oscar Schmidt Brazil 1996
7 44 Ricardo Duarte Peru 1964
7 44 Oscar Schmidt Brazil 1988
7 44 Oscar Schmidt Brazil 1992
10 42 Patty Mills Australia 2020
11 41 Arturo Guerrero Mexico 1976
11 41 Oscar Schmidt Brazil 1988
13 40 Arturo Guerrero Mexico 1976
13 40 Antonello Riva Italy 1984

You can find the full list on ca.nba.com.

Oscar Schmidt as the Olympic Wilt Chamberlain

If you’re familiar with Olympic basketball history then you’re not surprised to see the name Oscar Schmidt on the list. The “Holy Hand” was a Brazilian gunner known for his scoring outbursts during the 1980s and early 1990s –  Schmidt is the Wilt Chamberlain of the Olympics in the sense that he holds some of the most-ridiculous, nearly-unbreakable offensive records.

With that in mind, Doncic’s 48 points comes in distant second to Schmidt’s 55 points he scored against Spain in the 1988 Olympics.

IN fact, “Mao Santa,” as Schmidt was known, went completely berserk in the 1988 Seoul Olympics scoring more than 40 points five times during the tournament. And it wasn’t just chucking, his scoring led the Brazilians to win three of the five games (Puerto Rico, Canada, and China) in which he topped 40 points. He would average a record 41.9 points per game during those Olympic games. All in all, Schmidt owns the record for most points scored in the history of Olympic basketball.

If you’re not familiar with Olympic history or Schmidt then you may be a bit surprised that you don’t see any American players above especially considering how historically dominant the Americans have been at basketball.

Yeah, so what about Team USA?

The American player that owns the single game scoring record in the Olympics wasn’t far off from the above list. That would be Carmelo Anthony who scored 37 points against Team Nigeria in the 2012 Olympics. Here’s the list with players from TEAM USA:

Team USA Olympic Single Game Scoring Leaders
Rank Points Player Opponent Olympics
1 37 Carmelo Anthony Nigeria 2012
2 36 Steph Curry Serbia 2024
3 31 Stephon Marbury Spain 2004
3 31 Carmelo Anthony Australia 2016
5 30 Adrian Dantley Yugoslavia 1976
5 30 Charles Barkley Brazil 1992
5 30 Kevin Durant Spain 2012
5 30 Klay Thompson France 2016
5 30 Kevin Durant Serbia 2016

You can see the full list here at USA Basketball. (Update: That page doesn’t exist any longer, so go here for the U.S. players that have scored the most points in one Olympic game.) 

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