16 nations were admitted into the Olympic tournament, with many others being eliminated in a pre-Olympic tournament held earlier in the year from 13 to 20 August 1960 at the Land Rover Arena at Bologna.

64 games of basketball were played in the Olympic tournament that was held at the Palazzetto dello Sport and PalaLottomatica, both in Rome.

The results of those games carried over into the final and each team played the remaining two finalists once (even though the teams may have played each other in the preliminary round, those results were not carried over).

Czechoslovakia's victory over Poland and Yugoslavia's win over Uruguay carried over to this round.

The United States' win over the Soviet Union and Brazil's victory over Italy carried over.