The United States won the gold medal in the women's competition, repeating their performance from the 1984 tournament.

In the men's tournament, the Soviet Union won its second gold medal in the team's history for this event.

That team included a large percentage of players from the Baltic states: Sabonis, Chomičius, Kurtinaitis and Marčiulionis from Lithuania, Miglinieks from Latvia and Tiit Sokk from Estonia.

This was the last Olympic basketball tournament where NBA players were not allowed to participate; FIBA voted in a rule change in 1989 that lifted that restriction, leading to the dominance of 1992's Dream Team.

For both tournaments, automatic qualifications were granted to the host country and the winners from the previous edition.