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#3 Ed Palubinskas
Ed Palubinskas is a celebrated FIBA player and a major name in Olympic basketball history. Being a Basketball Australia Hall of Fame player, Ed was one of the best scorers ever in the Olympics before the arrival of the number 1 man on this list. In his professional career, he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks but never played in the NBA. Interestingly, he was Shaquille O'Neal's shooting coach in the 2000-01 season.
The 6' 0" tall basketballer set multiple scoring records in the Olympics in his time. During the Montreal Olympics, Ed Palubinskas scored a record-setting 269 points in the tournament. This record remained unbroken for twelve years. Ed Palubinskas dropped 48 points against Team Mexico in his best-ever individual performance in the Olympics, thus cementing his position as the third-best on this list.
#2 Luka Doncic
One of the best players in the world, Luka Doncic is the only current NBA player on the list. Hailing from the central European country of Slovenia, Luka has made an incredible mark in the game of basketball. As a professional NBA player playing for the Dallas Mavericks, his ability to score, pass, and defend is at the top of the league.
The 6' 7" point guard's game was immediately recognized by players and franchises across the NBA league. His extraordinary performance won him the Rookie of the year award in 2019 and an All-Star appearance in two of his three seasons.
As a point guard, Luka also plays like a small forward. His offensive arsenal includes step-back threes, floaters, drives, and euro-steps. Each of his spectacular moves is insanely difficult to stop, allowing him to post extremely high numbers.
Playing against Argentina in Slovenia's first ever Olympic basketball match, Luka scored 48 points, tying for second place with Ed as the second highest points scored in a match in the Olympics. Luka's performance in his debut match was so good that even the Argentinian legend Manu Ginobili couldn't help but praise him.
#1 Oscar Schmidt
Mao Santo, the holy hand, the player to have scored 55 points in an Olympics game and broken uncountable records, Oscar Schmidt is almost a mythical player. The Brazilian national represented his country in the Olympics five times and was the leading scorer three times.
The almost 6' 9" shooting guard rejected the New Jersey Nets' fully guaranteed contract to play in Italy. His reason for doing so? According to him, the pay wasn't as good and he wanted to continue representing Brazil.
This phenomenal scorer holds the record for most points scored in an Olympic match, a record he set by breaking the 12-year-long record set by Ed. In 1988, in a game against Spain, Oscar scored 55 points to cement his title as the best individual performance in the Olympics. Even though Oscar had many more such phenomenal performances, we only considered his highest scoring performance for this list.
