1980 Tournament of the Americas
The Torneo de las Américas 1980 ( english The 1980 Tournament of the Americas ) is the first edition of the America Basketball Championship and was held from 18 to 25 April 1980 in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan instead. The inaugural tournament was about the qualifications of the national selection teams, founded five years earlier continental federation FIBA Americas for the basketball tournament at the Olympic Games in 1980. Hindsight, the tournament was inducted into the Order of America Championships and counted as a continental championship for national representative teams of men FIBA America. Of the seven teams participating at the end of the three medal winners qualified directly for the Olympic Games. The choice of the United States qualified automatically as the gold medalist of the Olympic tournament in Montreal in 1976 and defending champion and did not participate in the qualifying tournament. Just one week before the start of Olympic qualifying, the United States Olympic Committee decided to boycott the Summer Games in Moscow in 1980. Until the beginning of the Olympic Games 1980 medal winners of Olympic elimination joined in the continental federation FIBA Americas with this boycott, so that ultimately were invited as teams in the FIBA Americas Brazil Cuba and the Olympic tournament.
Participant
There was a regional qualifier in accordance with the sub-zones of the Continental Association. In addition to the two national teams of the North American sub-zone and host Puerto Rico, the medalist at the South American Championships were qualified. From the Central American zone, the highest ranked teams in the basketball competition of the Pan American Games in 1979 took part, with the selection of Panama did not participate in the competition as well as the original already qualified selection of the United States from the North American zone.
North America
- Canada Canada
Central America & the Caribbean
- Puerto Rico Puerto Rico ( host & Silver Medal Pan American Games 1979)
- Cuba Cuba (fourth Pan American Games 1979)
- Mexico Mexico (eighth Pan American Games 1979)
South America
- Argentina Argentina (winner Campeonato Sudamericano 1979)
- Brazil 1968 Brazil ( silver medal Campeonato Sudamericano 1979)
- Uruguay Uruguay ( Bronze Campeonato Sudamericano 1979)
Mode
The tournament was played as a round robin tournament. The three medal winners had a starting place for the basketball tournament at the Summer Olympics in 1980. Given the same number of victories, the direct comparison of the ranking of the rankings mattered.
Final round
* After the boycott of the United States and the medalist of this qualifying tournament, the teams of Brazil and Cuba engaged as representatives of the FIBA Americas after for the Olympic tournament in Moscow.