The U.S. men’s basketball team begins its quest for a fifth straight Olympic gold medal today.
Game 1, against Serbia, just tipped off in Lille, a city about 140 miles from Paris. (Lille is hosting the Games’ basketball group phases, before the City of Lights puts on the knockout rounds).
Some have speculated that this early match-up could present the U.S. squad with their toughest individual opponent: Nikola Jokic, a Serbian star who plays for the Denver Nuggets (and a multiple time NBA MVP winner). Notably, the U.S. also faced Serbia for the gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, winning that contest, pretty decisively, by 30 points.
How the U.S. does tonight, though, is only an indication of where they’re heading: in the group phase, each team plays three others in their bracket, and will earn two points for a win and one point for a loss (and zero points for a loss by forfeit, interestingly). The two top teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals (and the start of the knockout round), as will the two best third-place teams overall.
The U.S. is part of Group C, including Serbia, Latvia and South Sudan (the young African nation is playing in its first Olympic games; their men’s basketball almost beat the Americans in a warm-up friendly a few weeks ago).
The U.S. team is a favorite again this time around, with a stacked team of talent including LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker, Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Halliburton and Derrick White. They are coached by Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors.
Some cool facts about this team: three of its players (Tatum, Holiday, White) play for the Boston Celtics, who just won the 2024 NBA Championships. And four are former MVPs: James, Curry, Durant and Embiid. Durant, in particular, might make history in becoming the Olympics’ first male athlete to win four gold medal in any team sport.