The Soviet Union squad became Olympic champions in the [[Basketball at the 1988 Summer Olympics|1988 Summer Olympics]] for the second and the last time, defeating [[1988 United States men's Olympic basketball team|the United States]] 82-76 in the semi-finals and [[Yugoslavia national basketball team|Yugoslavia]] 76-63 in the finals.
Once Lithuania became the first [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Union Republic]] [[Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania|to declare independence on March 11, 1990]], the Soviet Union national team did not even qualify for the [[EuroBasket 1991]] [REF].