The United States men’s basketball team will play Serbia, South Sudan and a team yet to qualify, while the U.S. women will see defending silver medalist Japan, Germany and Belgium in group play at the Paris Olympics in August.
The two American teams are both reigning gold medalists; the women have captured seven golds, while the U.S. men have captured the last four Olympic golds.
The U.S. women are heavy favorites to repeat, but the same cannot be said for the American men who are expected to send a star-studded roster to France, but will nonetheless face a pool with more NBA talent spread across the other countries’ rosters than ever before. For instance, the Americans will face in the group stage Serbia, runner-up at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, with multi-time MVP Nikola Jokić on the roster.
FIBA, the international governing body for basketball, held a draw to reveal the group stages for both the men’s and women’s Olympic tournaments Tuesday at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball Mies, Switzerland, near Geneva.
Group play for the men’s and women’s tournaments, which begin July 27, will be held in Lille, France, near the Belgian border. They will be played in an outdoor soccer stadium, with knockout stages and the medal round at Accor Arena in Paris.
The South…
