Men's Olympic basketball tournament: Paris 2024 draw results with USA, Serbia facing off in Group C
Defending Olympic champions USA will face a “strong” Serbia team and debutants South Sudan at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 after the men’s Olympic basketball tournament draw was made at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball in Mies, Switzerland, on Tuesday 19 March.
The trio were drawn in Group C, with USA and Serbia clashing in their opening match of the tournament on 28 July.
Eight teams have already made it through to the group stage of the Olympic Games, and they will be joined by the four winners of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQT) to be played in Riga, Latvia, Valencia, Spain, Piraeus, Greece, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, from 2-7 July.
Paris 2024 hosts France, who lost to the USA in the final at Tokyo 2020, will begin their bid for their first Olympic gold on 27 July against the winner of the qualifying tournament in Latvia, before facing Japan, and ending with a mouth-watering tie against the current world champions Germany. They were drawn in Group B, while Australia, Canada and the winners of the qualifiers in Greece and Spain will compete in Group A.
The top two in each group plus the two best third-placed teams will advance to the knock-outs.
Paris 2024 men's Olympic basketball tournament groups
Group A: Australia, winner of OQT Greece, Canada, winner of OQT Spain
Group B: France, Germany, Japan, winner of OQT Latvia
Group C: Serbia, South Sudan, winner of OQT Puerto Rico, USA
Which teams are competing in the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments?
OQT Greece: Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Egypt
OQT Spain: Angola, Bahamas, Finland, Lebanon, Poland, Spain
OQT Latvia: Brazil, Cameroon, Georgia, Latvia, Montenegro, Philippines
OQT Puerto Rico: Bahrain, Cote d'Ivoire, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico, Puerto Rico
Carmelo Anthony: "America will come to play... it's ours to lose"
"It was exciting," Carmelo Anthony told Olympics.com after assisting with the draw. "I hope I don't get any blame for the way the groups played out! I think all the groups will be exciting. Group A is a tough group. I think that all-around, the level of competition will be amazing, regardless of what group you're in.
"I think that we, as a country, as Americans, understand that we have to come to play, and I think that's the exciting part - to see the players lock in and get focused on coming to Paris and trying to win.
"The tournament is in France, and France has a really good team, so they're going to try and protect their home court and do what they have to do for their fans and country, so it's going to be exciting. I can't wait to see it."
Anthony, who won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, said the entire field has a chance to win, but France sticks out.
"Canada's strong, Serbia's strong, especially if they get their full team and come prepared. Of course, for the US, it's ours to lose at the end of the day, but France is a dark horse of mine. They're at home, they have really good players, I think they will be prepared, and they have home-court advantage. So France will always be a dark horse of mine.
"Germany, too, coming off of the World Cup win - that's powerful. So to see Germany in the pool that they're in. It's going to be tough. But it's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of strong competition. I'm waiting to see 27,000 people in the stadium."