Following the events of 1939, the basketball tournament was not organised for some time. What's more, some of the countries that won the championship in the 1930s disappeared from the maps of Europe for nearly 50 years. After World War II, FIBA intended to organise a tournament in 1945. However, it was possible only a year later and the action took place in Geneva, Switzerland. The players of the then Czechoslovakian team became the champions, led to the fight for gold by the center - Ivan Mrazek.

The tournament that followed (Prague 1947) hosted the players form the Soviet Union for the first time. The team, whose line-up consisted mainly of players of non-Russian origin, dominated winning all the games with a clear advantage. But with one exception, their hegemony lasted until the end of the 1960s. The then stars were Otar Korkia from Georgia and Stepas Butautas from .Lithuania.

As the 1947 Champion, the Soviet Union was supposed to organise the tournament two years later, but refused. Czechoslovakia was the runner-up, but it hosted the event in 1947. Consequently, to organisation of the 1949 EuroBasket was awarded to the bronze medallists... Egypt. This African country had participated in the European Championship since 1937 as it could not find a competitor on the African continent. However, in 1949 most teams had difficulties organising a trip to Cairo, especially after the entire football team of AC Torino had been killed in a plane crash the same year. Moreover, the countries of the socialist block refused to send their national teams for political reasons. As a result, the only basketball teams of significance came from France, Greece, the Netherlands, and Turkey, with the last two making a debut at the international tournament. Syria and Lebanon were also invited to take part so as to increase the number of participants to seven in total. Eventually, the host team won the championship title.

In the 1950s, the domination of the Soviet team was in full swing with only one exception, occurring in 1955 in Budapest. That year, the tournament was organised at the huge Nepstadion in the open air. 18 teams played 89 games in 12 days. - Additionally, the 3D-second clock was used for the first time to measure the time limit for ball possession. It significantly improved the game quality and permanently changed the results achieved by players on courts (at that time Poland won a match against England 140:44, which is still the highest EuroBasket score ever).

During that memorable tournament, the basketball players from the USSR lost two games in the final round, including the key game against Hungary 68:82, and eventually came third. The host team won the championship – for the first and only time so far.

Since 1963 onwards, FIBA has restricted the number of EuroBasket participants to 16 teams. Two years later, for the very first time, the tournament was held in a number of locations in various cities. This, however, did not tip the scales against the USSR team, who kept on dominating the EuroBasket tournaments from 1957 to 1967 without losing a single game. Starting in 1961, the team was headed by the legendary coach Alexander Gomelsky, who, until 1981, won the European Championship for the USSR on six occasions.