Four spots are up for grabs in the men’s basketball tournament at the 2024 Olympic Games this week. At four tournaments around the world, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and other familiar faces will compete for their respective countries. Each tournament’s winner will qualify for the Olympics in Paris.
Doncic, who is representing Slovenia (alongside Vlatko Cancar and Zoran Dragic) just weeks after his first trip to the NBA Finals ended, and Antetokounmpo, who is representing Greece (alongside his brother Kostas, Nick Calathes, Georgios Papagiannis, Kostas Papanikolaou and Thomas Walkup) in his return from a calf injury that he suffered in April, are both competing in Piraeus, Greece. They will go head-to-head on Saturday in the semifinals as Greece faces Slovenia. The winner advances to the finals in Piraeus (to face either Croatia or the Dominican Republic). The loser sees their Olympic dreams vanish.
In Valencia, Spain, the host country (featuring Santi Aldama, Usman Garuba, Juan Nunez, Sergio Llull, Rudy Fernandez, Lonrezo Brown and Juancho and Willy Hernangomez) could very well meet an intriguing team from the Bahamas (featuring Deandre Ayton, Buddy Hield and Eric Gordon) in the finals. Spain faces Finland (which does not have Lauri Markkanen) and the Bahamas go up against Lebanon in Saturday’s semifinals.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, the host country (featuring Jose Alvarado, Tremont Waters and Davon Reed) will play Mexico in the semifinals. Lithuania (featuring Domantas Sabonis, Domantas Motiejunas, Mindaugus Kuzminskas and Deividas Sirvydis) will square off agianst Italy (featuring Danilo Gallinari, Nicolo Melli and Nico Mannion) in the other San Juan semi.
In Riga, Latvia, the host country (featuring Davis and Dairis Bertans, Rodions Kurucs and Janis Timma) is facing Cameroon on Saturday. Latvia could face Brazil (featuring Gui Santos, Bruno Caboclo, Cristiano Felicio, Raul Neto, Marcelo Huertas and Didi Louzada) in the finals is the Brazilians beat the Philippines.
From Tuesday to Thursday, each team played the two other teams in its group. The top two teams from each group in each tournament advanced the semifinals on Saturday, and the finals will be held Sunday. The winner of each tournament gets to go to France, where the basketball portion of the program will begin in Lille on July 27. France, by virtue of hosting the Olympics, has already qualified, as have Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Serbia, South Sudan and the United States.
How to watch Olympic basketball qualifying
All qualifying games are available on Courtside 1891, FIBA’s streaming platform.
Olympic basketball qualifying tournament schedule, scores
(All times Eastern)
Tuesday, July 2
Bahamas 96, Finland 85
Spain 104, Lebanon 59
Dominican Republic 90, Egypt 77
Brazil 81, Montenegro 72
Latvia 83, Georgia 55
Croatia 108, Slovenia 92
Italy 114, Bahrain 53
Lithuania 96, Mexico 84
Wednesday, July 3
Montenegro 70, Cameroon 66
New Zealand 90, Croatia 86
Bahamas 90, Poland 81
Philippines 89, Latvia 80
Greece 89, Dominican Republic 82
Spain 89, Angola 81
Lithuania 97, Côte d’Ivoire 93
Puerto Rico 99, Bahrain 56
Thursday, July 4
Georgia 96, Philippines 94
Slovenia 104, New Zealand 78
Lebanon 74, Angola 70
Cameroon 77, Brazil 74
Greece 93, Egypt 71
Finland 89, Poland 88
Mexico 92, Côte d’Ivoire 81
Puerto Rico 80, Italy 69
Saturday, July 6
Brazil vs. Philippines, 8:30 a.m.
Greece vs. Slovenia, 10:30 a.m.
Bahamas vs. Lebanon, 11:30 a.m.
Cameroon vs. Latvia, 12 p.m.
Dominican Republic vs. Croatia, 2 p.m.
Finland vs. Spain, 2:30 p.m.
Italy vs. Lithuania, 4 p.m.
Puerto Rico vs. Mexico, 7 p.m.
Sunday, July 7
Finals, TBD
