With almost every NBA American superstars expressing their desire to be a part of Team USA, such as
LeBron James,
Stephen Curry, Anthony Edwards and Anthony Davis, to name a few, United States could be pretty confident about being Olympic Champions once again. However, not mentioning the presence of of the league's best player,
Nikola Jokic, playing for Serbia, or aknowledging the progress of France or Canada could lead to repeat the same mistake that happened 20 years ago. Basketball is a global game, and there are great players and teams to not take for granted.
With the games returning to Europe, being played at the home of one of the most talented and dangerous teams, and with the return of the public after what was Tokyo 2020 (played in 2021), the stage is set for being one of the most popular competitions of the entire event.
KD, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum and several big names in addition to the previous mentioned are eligible for Steve Kerr to form the best team possible.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic, among other international superstars already have secured their spot. Giannis Antetokounmpo and
Luka Doncic will be deciding their fate with Karl-Anthony Towns, depending on who gets that final ticket to Paris in the Pre-Olympic tournament to be held in Greece next July.
The next Olympics might see a dominance of tall players. Serbia secured Europe's final qualifying spot at the World Cup without Jokic, who was resting post the NBA Finals. Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert will France's twin towers. Lithuania beat Team USA last summer at the World Cup and could have a dominant front line with Jonas Valanciunas and Domantas Sabonis.
Germany also has a lot of potential, with Mo and Franz Wagner, Dennis Schroder and also Daniel Theis. They've conquered last FIBA World Cup playing at an awesome level.
Canada is enjoying its best generation of basketball players, making them a really hard team to defeat. Shai, Jamal Murray, Andrew Wiggins, they are a stacked team too.
What about Spain? well they will be defining their presence by playing the Pre-Olympic tournament at home. Their biggest rival will be a pretty good Bahamas team, with DeAndre Ayton, Eric Gordon and Buddy Hield.
With all these being said, the competition this time will be absolutely wild. We'll get the chance to enjoy a one-of-a-kind basketball tournament starting on July 26.
