| Continent: | South America |
| Year: | 1961 |
| Host: | Brazil |
| Dates: | April 20-30 |
| Teams: | 8 |
| Venues: | 1 |
| Cities: | 1 |
| Champions: | Brazil |
| Title Number: | 5 |
| Prevseason: | 1960 |
| Nextseason: | 1963 |
The South American Basketball Championship 1961 was the 18th edition of this regional tournament. It was held from April 20 to April 30 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Eight teams competed.
The final standings were determined by a round robin, where the 8 teams played against each other once.
| - align=center bgcolor=#efefef | width=20 | Rank | width=220 | Team | width=20 | Pts | width=20 | W | width=20 | L | width=20 | PF | width=20 | PA | width=20 | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 576 | 356 | +220 | ||||||||||
| 2 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 434 | 420 | +37 | ||||||||||
| 3 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 473 | 436 | +14 | ||||||||||
| 4 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 462 | 448 | +14 | ||||||||||
| 5 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 363 | 434 | -71 | ||||||||||
| 6 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 408 | 446 | -38 | ||||||||||
| 7 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 419 | 521 | -74 | ||||||||||
| 8 | 8 | 1 | 6 | 372 | 446 | -102 |