The first qualifying tournament was the 2006 FIBA World Championship in which the champion was guaranteed of a place in the Olympics.
[1] Cape Verde defeated Egypt by 2 points, 53-51 to join Cameroon in the wildcard tournament.
[3] Puerto Rico and Brazil, the other semifinalists, and Canada the fifth-place team (tied for fourth at the quarterfinals but was beaten by Puerto Rico 72–66 in the last day of the quarterfinals to win the tiebreaker) qualify for the wildcard tournament.
[2] With China automatically qualified, a much weaker team (without Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi) leaves the race wide open for FIBA Asia's Olympic berth.
China's early elimination in the preliminary round (their worst performance in the Asian Championships) simplified the implications: only the winner will advance outright to the Olympics.
Spain survived into the final, where they were beaten by Russia, 60–59, which qualified outright to the Olympics.