The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are finally up and running and many sports fans will be tuning in to watch the world’s greatest athletes compete. Many of those eyes will be trained on the courts as the Olympic Games features two men’s and women’s basketball events that will get the hearts racing, the Basketball and 3×3 Basketball events. Let’s take a look at the potential medal favourites in those basketball showpieces.
To start, we look at the jewel in the crown, the feature five-on-five basketball event that’s been made famous by the USA Dream Teams over the years. There are 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams taking part in Tokyo.
Men’s Basketball Favourites:
United States
The US are the overwhelming favourites to take the gold medal. With players like Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum they have the firepower to take down anyone. However, their build-up to the Games has been extremely rocky, having lost to Nigeria and Australia in a warm-up tournament. They are still the odds-on favourites to take gold.
United States to win Gold 1.31
Australia
The Aussies have been quietly going about their business in the build-up to the Olympics. They have a solid team with 7 NBA players including Joe Ingles, Aron Baynes, Dante Exum, Matthew Dellavedova, Matisse Thybulle and Josh Green. There are no ‘star’ names in the team but they work very well together.
Spain
The Spanish team are the World Cup holders and have many veterans who have been at the top of the basketball world. Led by the Gasol brothers Pau and Marc the side features 5 NBA players including guard Ricky Rubio and another set of brothers, Juancho and Willy Hernangomez. They have the experience and skill to upset the apple cart.
Nigeria
Nigeria is a massive outside bet. They have really shown a massive improvement in recent years. They’ve brought in NBA coach Mike Brown and have attracted a number of NBA players with Nigerian heritage to pay for D’Tigers. The team looked very good when they beat the USA and Argentina in the warm-up games they played before jetting to Tokyo. They’d be a cheeky punt to win a medal.
3×3 Basketball
We then have the new entrant to the Games in 3×3 Basketball as 16 teams, 8 men’s teams and 8 women’s sides battle it out for medals. Officially pronounced three-ex-three, this is an exciting, fast-paced version of the game with three players on each side facing off in every game.
You would think that the United States would be presumptive favourites here as the World Champions, but the USA doesn’t have a men’s team at this event as they didn’t qualify.
Serbia
The Serbian team is one of the main sides to back and this is because of their star player in Dusan Bulut. They have four players in the top 10 of the world rankings with Aleksandar Ratkov, Stefan Kojic and Mihailo Vasic all expected to help out Bulut. They are the top-ranked team in the world and much is expected from them.
Latvia
This Latvian team are ranked fourth in the world right now and were runners up at the World Cup in 2019. The team has three excellent players at its core, Nauris Miezis, Edgars Krumins and Karlis Lasmanis, who are ranked in the top 10 in the world right now. They will fancy their chances of winning it all.
Lithuana
Lithuania will be led by Aurelijus Pukelis as they chase gold in Tokyo. They are ranked third in the world and will be focused on getting the better of the more fancied teams.
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