Montenegro men's national basketball team

Montenegro
FIBA ranking	17 (15 August 2024)
Joined FIBA	2006
FIBA zone	FIBA Europe
National federation	Basketball Federation of Montenegro (KSCG)
Coach	Boško Radović
Nickname(s)	Црна Гора / Crna Gora; (The Black Mountain)
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	2
Medals	None
EuroBasket
Appearances	4
Medals	None
Games of the Small States of Europe
Appearances	3
Medals	Gold: (2015, 2019); Silver: (2017)
First	Second
First international
	Netherlands 63–70 Montenegro ; (Almere, Netherlands; 6 September 2008)
Biggest win
	San Marino 37–100 Montenegro ; (Serravalle, San Marino; 2 June 2017)
Biggest defeat
	Spain 99–60 Montenegro ; (Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 1 September 2017)

The Montenegro men's national basketball team (Montenegrin: Кошаркашка репрезентација Црне Горе, romanized: Košarkaška reprezentacija Crne Gore) represents Montenegro in international basketball tournaments. The supervising body is the Basketball Federation of Montenegro.

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Montenegro joined FIBA in 2006, following the restoration of Montenegrin independence in the same year. Since 2006, the national team has qualified for EuroBasket on four occasions (2011, 2013, 2017, 2022). Montenegro has qualified for the FIBA World Cup twice, in 2019 and 2023. The team has also taken part in smaller tournaments such as the Games of the Small States of Europe.

2006–2014

In 2006, the Basketball Federation of Montenegro along with this team joined the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) on its own following the Independence of Montenegro.

The Montenegrin national team entered international competition in 2008,^[2] and appointed Duško Vujošević as the national coach. Montenegro started from FIBA Division B, where they won first place in their first competitive season. Since becoming a separate team, Montenegro has won 13 official games in a row, until losing to Israel in August 2010.

At that time, NBA players like Nikola Vučević and Nikola Peković became the most known players of Montenegrin national team.

In their first qualifiers for EuroBasket, Montenegro finished first in the group. So, the team qualified for Eurobasket 2011, where they played five games in the first phase – with one win and four losses. The Coach of Montenegro at their first-ever EuroBasket was Dejan Radonjić.

In August 2012, with the new coach Luka Pavićević, Montenegro started qualifiers for Eurobasket 2013. Again, they won first place, but without any defeat from 10 matches. Notable matches were against Serbia, first after the two countries separated. Montenegro won both games, and victory in Belgrade (73:71), in front of 18,000 spectators, is gained by Nikola Ivanović three-point shot from the center, one second before the end of the match.^[3]^[4]

As the first-place team in qualifiers, Montenegro participated at Eurobasket 2013 in Slovenia. They made better results than 2011, with two wins and three defeats, but that was not enough for the second phase of EuroBasket.

First unsuccessful qualifying campaign since independence, Montenegro had during the 2014. Surprisingly, group stage at the EuroBasket 2015 qualification, Montenegro finished third, so they failed to qualify for the final tournament.

2015–present

In 2015, Montenegro named Bogdan Tanjević new head coach of the national team. Prior to taking the reins of the national team, he was the head coach of Fenerbahçe. As the national team earlier failed to qualify for EuroBasket 2015, they participated in the Games of the Small States of Europe (European countries with less than a million citizens) in Iceland and easily won the gold medal.

In summer 2016, Montenegro started competition in EuroBasket 2017 qualifiers, with the only ambition to qualify for their third final tournament since independence. In a group with Georgia, Slovakia and Albania, Montenegro finished as a second-place team, with one defeat, and qualified for EuroBasket 2017.

For the first time in their history, in Eurobasket 2017, Montenegro finished as a third-place team in the group stage and qualified to the knockout stage. At that time, that was the biggest success of the Montenegrin national team since its independence in 2006. Two years later, Montenegro qualified for the 2019 FIBA World Cup for the first time, after a winner-take-all game in Podgorica against Latvia. Montenegro lost the game 80–74 but still went through as they had won the away game 84–75, thus holding the tiebreaker on points difference. With that result, Montenegro became the smallest state by population and territory to qualify for the FIBA World Cup since the establishing of competition.

Montenegro made their first appearance at the FIBA World Cup in 2019. The national team has also appeared four times at the EuroBasket (2011, 2013, 2017, 2022). Among the other competitions, as a country with less than a million inhabitants, Montenegro participated at the Games of the Small States of Europe winning the gold medal in 2015 and 2019.

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FIBA World Cup

World Cup					Qualification
Year	Position	Pld	W	L	Pld	W	L
1950 to 1990	Part of Yugoslavia
1994 to 2006	Part of Serbia and Montenegro
2010	Did not qualify				EuroBasket served as qualifiers
2014	Did not qualify				EuroBasket served as qualifiers
2019	25th	5	1	4	12	7	5
2023	11th	5	3	2	16	11	5
2027	To be determined				To be determined
Total	2/4	10	4	6	28	18	10

Olympic Games

Olympic Games					Qualifying
Year	Position	Pld	W	L	Pld	W	L
1936 to 1988	Part of Yugoslavia
1992 to 2004	Part of Serbia and Montenegro
2008	Did not enter				Did not enter
2012	Did not qualify				Did not qualify
2016
2020
2024					2	1	1
Total	0/5				2	1	1

EuroBasket

EuroBasket					Qualification
Year	Position	Pld	W	L	Pld	W	L
1947 to 1991	Part of Yugoslavia
1993 to 2005	Part of Serbia and Montenegro
2007	Did not enter				Did not enter
2009	Division B				10	10	0
2011	21st	5	1	4	8	6	2
2013	17th	5	2	3	10	10	0
2015	Did not qualify				6	3	3
2017	13th	6	3	3	6	5	1
2022	13th	6	3	3	6	3	3
2025	To be determined				To be determined
Total	4/7	22	9	13	46	37	9

Games of the Small States of Europe

Games of the Small States of Europe
Year	Position	Pld	W	L
2015		3	3	0
2017		5	4	1
2019		4	4	0
2023	4th	5	2	3
Total		17	13	4