On July 27, the most important tournament in the basketball hierarchy begins: the Olympic Games. The US team is the tournament hegemon in this sport. In history, the Americans have won only four Olympic Games. They lost twice to the USSR and once to Yugoslavia.
Is it possible to disrupt American hegemony?
In addition to the Americans, there are six candidates standing out. Three of them are early adopters. These national teams performed well at the World Championship, but only because the real favorites did not participate in the tournament or played with suboptimal lineups.
We are talking about Greece, Spain and Germany. They know how to surprise, force the favourites to fight and delight the eye with beautiful basketball. The Greeks can be bet on the victory at the Olympic Games at bookmakers with odds of 27.0, the success of the Spaniards is considered 40.0 and that of the Germans – 27.0.
2024 Olympics Favorites:
Ukraine is underrated, Argentina will miss Messi. Olympics 2024, football
Serbia is more interesting. Many of its basketball players play in the NBA and they are not average players there. The main star of the team is Nikola Jokic, who has excellent game vision, distributes well-calibrated and unexpected passes to his opponents and consistently scores a lot of points.
In the 2022-2023 season, Jokic led the Denver Nuggets to victory in the NBA. Last season was less successful for him, but not entirely terrible. We expect a brilliant performance and a breakthrough for Serbia at the Olympics. You can bet on the Serbians to win at odds of 14.0.
Top favorites
The French team starts the top three contenders for gold. The “tricolors” have an even more decent lineup. At least they have three stars: Victor Vembanyama, Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum.
At the last Olympic Games, the French team reached the final, where they lost to the United States. You can bet on their victory at odds of 12.0.
The next contender is Canada, which reached the semi-finals of the 2023 World Cup. Shay Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray are two great talents. You can bet on the Canadians winning the basketball game at the 2024 Olympics at odds of 10.0.
At the very least, the Canadians have excellent chances of winning the group. They have come up against fairly comfortable opponents: Spain, Greece and Australia. These are strong teams, but not impenetrable. The Canadian team’s victory in the group is accepted at a rate of 1.65. Other groups are less predictable.
Who will play in the Olympics:
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And finally, the main favorite is the United States. It makes no sense to compare it with other teams. The Americans only have elite basketball players, but some can still be singled out because they are superstars.
Stephen Curry, Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and living legend LeBron James are all chasing gold in Paris. If James leads the team to victory, it will be a historic event. He will become the first basketball player in history to win three Olympic Games.
The US team lost a superstar just before the tournament. Kawhi Leonard was injured. However, even such a significant loss cannot be called painful. A high-quality replacement was immediately found to replace the basketball player who left the lineup – Jaylen Brown, who helped Boston win its first championship since 2008.
You can bet on the US basketball team to win the Olympics at odds of 1.14. The tournament will surely delight them with sensations and fierce competition, but the fate of the gold medals seems to be predetermined. The Americans are out of the running. They are heavily favored.
Bet 1: The US basketball team will win the 2024 Olympics in 1.14.
Bet 2: The Canadian basketball team will win Group A in 1.65.
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