The maximum number of athletes per country in Olympic basketball is 12 players on a team roster.
That limit applies to each national Olympic basketball team in the traditional five-on-five tournament. Five players from each side are on the court at a time, while the remaining rostered players serve as substitutes and can enter during the game. The roster limit is therefore larger than the number of active players on court.
The number 12 is easy to confuse with other basketball figures. A regulation team has five players playing at once, while professional leagues may use different roster and inactive-player rules. Olympic basketball’s 12-player limit refers to the athletes officially entered for a country’s tournament team.
The same 12-player roster format has been used across recent Olympic men’s and women’s competitions. Olympic 3x3 basketball is a separate discipline with a much smaller roster, so it should not be used when answering a question about standard Olympic basketball.