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How it works, what you need to know

Posted on by Vaseline

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The rest of the world has closed the gap to American men’s basketball. This is evident in major international competitions such as the FIBA ​​World Cup, where the US has not won a medal since 2014.

But if the U.S. sends its best team to the Olympics, the Americans are favorites to win gold, and that is the case in the men’s 5×5 basketball event at the Paris Olympics. The U.S. plays Serbia, South Sudan and Puerto Rico in Group C.

The U.S. has occasionally had a close game at the Olympics, losing 83-76 to France at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It was the Americans’ only loss at the Olympics since losing in the semifinals of the 2004 Athens Olympics, and the U.S. has won gold medals in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020.

The US has once again assembled a major All-Star roster for participation this summer, including LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry – the NBA’s biggest stars of the past 20 years.

Group matches will be played at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille, France, which is 140 miles north of Paris. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will be played at the Accor Arena in Paris.

Since when is men’s 5×5 basketball an Olympic sport?

Men’s 5×5 basketball made its Olympic debut in Berlin in 1936, where the U.S. won the first of its 16 gold medals. The ’36 Games saw basketball played outdoors, and James Naismith was on hand to present medals. The U.S. has won four consecutive gold medals since a bronze-medal debacle in Athens in 2004, with the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Argentina being the only other countries to win gold in the past 56 years.

How does Olympic 5×5 Men’s Basketball work?

The men’s Olympic 5×5 event consists of 12 teams divided into three groups of four teams. Each team plays one match against the other three teams in the group stage, and the top two teams in each group plus two wild cards advance to the quarterfinals. In group matches, a team receives two points for a win and one point for a loss. The tiebreakers are 1) group points 2) head-to-head results 3) points difference 4) total points scored.

The Olympics use the rules of the FIBA ​​men’s senior team rather than the NBA, and while the game looks the same, there are a few differences in FIBA, including a shorter game (four 10-minute quarters versus the NBA’s four 12-minute quarters), a narrower 3-point line (22 feet, 1¾ inches above the break, 21 feet, nine inches in the corner compared to the NBA’s 23-9 and 22 feet), five personal fouls for disqualification (six in the NBA), the use of full zone defenses (there is no defensive three seconds in FIBA), and goaltending (the ball is allowed to be batted away after it touches the rim, which is not allowed in the NBA). While the travel rules are essentially the same in both FIBA ​​and NBA, FIBA ​​referees are more diligent in enforcing the rule.

Who are the best athletes on Team USA in 5×5 men’s basketball?

The U.S. fields a star-studded roster — perhaps its most impressive since the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics — that includes Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and Lakers center Anthony Davis, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant and Suns guard Devin Booker, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum.

James, a four-time NBA champion and four-time MVP, won Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012; Durant, the leading scorer in U.S. Olympic history (435 points/19.8 points per game), has three Olympic gold medals (2012, 2016, 2020; Tatum won gold at the 2020 Games; Curry and Embiid are making their first Olympic appearances.

Golden State’s Steve Kerr is the head coach, and Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, Los Angeles Clippers’ Ty Lue and Gonzaga University’s Mark Few are assistant coaches.

What is the international landscape of Olympic 5×5 men’s basketball?

Around 50 current and former NBA players are expected to participate in Paris, including Denver Nuggets MVP Nikola Jokic for Serbia, Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for Canada and San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama for France.

Canada will field its best Olympic team with a majority of NBA players (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett, Dillon Brooks, Lu Dort) and will be vying for its first medal since winning silver at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. As hosts, France will be under pressure to win a medal, especially with Wembanyama, Nic Batum, Rudy Gobert and Even Fournier on the roster. They won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but finished a disappointing 18th at the 2023 FIBA ​​World Championship.

After last year’s World Cup gold, Germany (Orlando Magic’s Franz and Moritz Wagner and Brooklyn Nets’ Dennis Schroder) are a contender for a medal, along with Serbia (Atlanta Hawks’ Jokic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Miami Heat’s Nikola Jovic) and Australia (Minnesota Timberwolves’ Joe Ingles, Charlotte Hornets’ Josh Green, Dallas Mavericks’ Dante Exum and Chicago Bulls’ Josh Giddey).

Greece and Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo are gunning for a medal, and Spain, while no longer in its prime, still has a solid team.