The last time a European basketball team won the Olympic tournament was in Seoul in 1988. And this is a stretched claim because the Soviet Union was a Euro-Asian country. But if we know that Lithuanian players were the backbone of that team, we can get away with the statement above.
Since Barcelona 1992 and the entrance of professional NBA players, the US basketball team has won all Olympic competitions but one: Argentina was the gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. Having finished third, the Americans made a pledge they were going to take the following Olympic tournaments more seriously, and they’ve won every single gold ever since.
The US team, under the guidance of the incredible Steve Kerr, is bringing the hot shots from the NBA to the forthcoming 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. From traditional bookies to iGaming platforms, usually based offshore for US players, LeBron, Embiid, Curry & Co. already get the highest odds to win the tournament. Team USA has 5/18 odds, with Canada their nearest competitors at 8/1.
However, several European countries will do their best to challenge the Dream Team ’24. They base their optimism on the remarkable cagers they have on the roster.
For starters, here’s the finalist of the 2023/2024 NBA season for Dallas Mavericks: his all-round majesty Luka Doncic. The Mavericks’ guard had an average of 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 9.8 assists per game. The best scorer of the just-finished season, he’s planning to play it big this summer at Accor Arena (better known as Paris-Bercy). However, there’s one tiny fly in the ointment: his Slovenian (60/1) side first needs to win the qualifying tournament in Greek Piraeus in early July.
Speaking of this qualifying tournament, we get to Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo. Having averaged 30.4, 11.5, and 6.5 this season, respectively, he had another brilliant season. If Greece (60/1) takes advantage of the domestic court, Giannis will lead their national team to the Olympics.
Nikola Jokic, having won the third-in-a-row NBA MVP trophy, doesn’t depend on any additional qualifiers. Serbia was the runner-up at the 2023 World Basketball Championships, which reserved this squad a direct place in the Olympic tournament. Jokic, as the most prolific European center in the last two decades, will have another prominent NBA player by his side: Atlanta Hawks’ Bogdan Bogdanovic. Still, Jokic didn’t play at the World Championships last year and he still hasn’t made his final decision regarding this Olympics tournament. With Jokic under the hoop, Serbia (9/1) is the third most probable team to win the basketball tournament.
The French (14/1) squad will have a rising star on its roster: San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama has been one of the hottest picks in the 2023/24 season. His signing for the Spurs spawned a real Wembmania craze, with this 7-foot, 2-inch (2.22 cm) center at its center. His end-season rookie stats comprising 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 3.9 assists make for one of the best openings at such a young age (Victor was born in 2004). When he joins forces with the Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert, we can expect a stellar performance from the French national team; predictions have that they’re the fourth potential tournament winner.
Franz Wagner, a small forward playing at the German (14/1) national team and Orlando Magic, is another rising star whose participation in the Paris Olympics should bring joy and excitement to the stands. A 2023 world champion, he averaged 19.7, 5.3, and 3.7 this season, respectively, underlining his candidacy for one of the most promising small forwards in the world. Together with the Brooklyn Nets’ Dennis Schroder, Franz will try to add the Olympic gold to their trophy cabinet. Having been named the favorite in a row to win this competition, they’ll be inspired to show the bookies they’ve been underrated.
The following tournament will surely give birth to new basketball stars and confirm some of the existing stardom. Who knows, perhaps we’ll even get a new member of the Hall of Fame once the basketball tournament finishes this August.
