With a star-studded lineup of NBA and WNBA greats, the U.S. hopes to maintain its golden grip on basketball at the Paris Olympics, but several teams will be looking to play spoiler.
The U.S. women – with La Jolla Country Day alum Kelsey Plum on the squad – are bidding to become the first team in any Olympic sport to win eight consecutive gold medals. The men will hope to make it five in a row with a 17th title overall, to extend their record.
Hoops action starts Saturday, but the U.S. men play their opening game in Group C at 8:15 a.m. Sunday against one of the toughest contenders, Serbia. Women’s play begins at noon Monday against Japan.
The men’s gold medal game is set for Aug. 10, with the women’s to follow the next day.
The men’s team has one of the strongest rosters in their history featuring LeBron James, Steph Curry, Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant, already a three-time gold medallist.
Yet ever since Michael Jordan’s “Dream Team” clinched gold for the U.S. in 1992, sparking a wider global interest in the sport, European players, such as Serbia’s Nikola Jokic, have made their mark in the league.
Serbia, silver medalists in 2016, pose the biggest defensive challenge of any of the 12 teams in the competition.
Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo also will be one to watch after Greece came through qualifying earlier this month to book their ticket to Paris.
Underdogs Puerto Rico are looking to make history in their first appearance at the Games in 20 years. South Sudan also will be among the contenders, with former NBA All-Star Luol Deng at the helm of the country’s basketball federation.
The American women hope to extend their winning streak with an experienced squad that includes nine gold medallists from the Tokyo Games, including Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson.
Joining them are two veterans – two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner and five-time gold medalist Diana Taurasi, who could become the most decorated team athlete in Games history if the U.S. takes home a medal.
Plum, a guard on the 2022 and 2023 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces, is a gold medalist herself, having won the 3×3 competition in 2020. Her other honors include being named 2021 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year and the All-Star Game MVP a year later.
But several teams in Paris will be looking to halt the women’s winning run.
China won silver at the 2022 World Championships with 6-foot-7-inch Yueru Li. She will be joined by towering WNBA center Xu Han who is an inch shy of 7 feet.
Australia and Spain are perennial contenders too, placing third and fourth in the FIBA rankings. Belgium has emerged as a basketball power largely due to Emma Meesseman, a two-time EuroLeague MVP and a WNBA champion.
Germany, making its first appearance at the Olympics, will be led by Satou Sabally, who won the WNBA’s Most Improved Player award last year.
(Reporting from Reuters by Angelica Medina in Lille and Rohith Nair in Paris; editing by Toby Davis)
