The 2024 Paris Olympics are just days away from kicking off. One of the sports that will captivate the world will be basketball. All of the talk has been about Team USA, and rightfully so. They are big favorites to win their fourth gold at the Olympics. However, there is a sleeper team that everyone should have an eye out for.
That team would be Greece. Greece currently has the fifth-best odds to win gold. They are led by one of the best players in the world, Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Greek Freak is a two-time NBA MVP and NBA champion with the Milwaukee Bucks. A case can be made that he is the best player in the Olympics.
Along with Giannis, Greece has a flurry of players on the top Greek league teams, Olympiacos and Panetolikos. While most people likely haven’t heard of the players on Greece’s team besides Giannis, these other guys have been playing together for a long time and have built great chemistry. Don’t sleep on Greece in these Olympics.
Greece Avoids Group with Team USA
This year’s basketball Olympics format is 12 teams, three groups, with four in each group. The top two teams in each group will automatically earn a spot in the quarterfinals, and the two best third-place teams will earn the final two spots.
Team USA, led by Lebron James and Steph Curry, is the major favorite heading into this tournament. If Greece plays the USA, it will be in the knockout stage. Greece’s group consists of Canada, Australia, and Spain. While these teams are all very good, they aren’t the buzzsaw that Team USA is.
Greece can fairly easily match up against Australia and Spain. Canada will be a tough matchup as they are the second most talented team in the Olympic field behind the USA. They are led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, Lue Dort, Dillon Brooks, RJ Barrett, and other NBA players. If Greece can win two of three games against these teams, they will be in the quarterfinals.
Giannis Has Something to Prove
The last two NBA seasons have not been friendly to Giannis Antetokounmpo. In 2023, the Bucks flamed out in the first round against the 8-seed Miami Heat. It was not a good look for Giannis, who was considered the best player in the world until that point by the general consensus.
This past season, going into the playoffs, Giannis got injured and was not able to play, as the Bucks were eliminated in the first round for the second year in a row. When you hear people talk about who the best player in the world is, Giannis’s name is barely mentioned.
Giannis is still an All-NBA player, and people have forgotten how great he is. He is also just 29 years old and as dominant as ever. If he wasn’t injured in this year’s playoffs, he would be looking to remind everyone that he is still that guy. There is also the pride of representing your country in the Olympics, especially a country like Greece that isn’t traditionally a basketball powerhouse.
Greece Has Got Some Hoopers!
Besides Giannis, Greece has some dudes who can ball. Captain Kostas Papanikolaou is a 6 foot 8 small forward who has been playing for Olympiacos since 2016. He was also briefly a member of the Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets for a couple of seasons. Kostas has proven himself to have NBA-level talent.
Another player to look for is 7-foot-3 center Georgios Papagiannis. Papagiannis plays for the French team AS Monaco. He played in the NBA from 2016 to 2018 with the Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers. He is an elite shot blocker and rebounder. Greece is a dark horse to make a deep run in the Olympics.
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