Giannis Antetokounmpo or Luka Doncic vs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the first full day of Olympic competition sounds like quite a bit of fun.
On Sunday, we’ll find out if a Canada-Greece or Canada-Slovenia men’s basketball matchup will become reality — and right now, the odds look pretty good.
Greece, led by Antetokounmpo, is 2-0 on its home floor in one of four last-chance Olympic qualifying tournaments this week. Greece has advanced to the semifinals and will face Doncic and Slovenia (1-1) on Saturday, while the Dominican Republic will meet Croatia in the other semi.
The winner of Sunday’s tourney final will advance to the Paris Olympics and square off with Gilgeous-Alexander and Canada in the opener for both squads.
Greece is favoured this weekend, especially at home, and Slovenia did everything in its power to avoid a likely semifinal matchup with the hosts. Slovenia needed to win by 29 over New Zealand on Thursday to likely miss Greece in the semis, but Doncic could not sink a three-pointer in the dying seconds that would have been enough to do it. Instead, Slovenia won by 26.
The Dallas Mavericks star did just about everything else right, finishing with 36 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his second triple-double at this year’s event and his third in a row overall in Olympic last-chance qualifying. Remember, Doncic is the same guy who just finished playing in the NBA Finals while battling several injuries. The Olympics clearly matter to him.
“It’s unbelievable to have a player like that,” Slovenia forward Gregor Hrovat told reporters after the 104-78 win over New Zealand. “He gave us extra confidence. With him, it’s so much easier to play. We know a lot of times other teams try to guard him (with) one, two or three players so it’s extra room for our others.”
Antetokounmpo had 32 points on 11-of-11 shooting in a 109-82 win over the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, marking his first game since a calf injury kept him out of the NBA Playoffs with the Milwaukee Bucks. Greece rested its star for Thursday’s 93-71 win over outmatched Egypt.
“First of all, Giannis, he loves to be here. He loves to represent his country,” coach Vassilis Spanoulis said after Wednesday’s win. “He’s very humble, he’s part of the team. For a superstar, you don’t find this (kind of player) easy.”
Canada, Greece and Slovenia all have visions of shaking up the Olympic podium.
Canada last won an Olympic medal in 1936 and was most recently in the competition in 2000. Greece has never reached the podium and is looking for its first appearance since 2008, while Slovenia finished fourth in its Games debut three years ago in Tokyo.
Gilgeous-Alexander led Canada to a long-awaited breakthrough last year when the country won bronze at the FIBA World Cup. Greece has just one World Cup medal in its history — silver in 2006 — while Slovenia hasn’t reached the podium at the event.
Canada’s other preliminary-round opponents in Paris are reigning Olympic bronze medal-winning Australia and this week’s qualifying tourney winner in Spain.
Host Spain, a perennial international contender, is the favourite and will face Finland in the semis. The Bahamas will take on Lebanon in the other semi.
The Bahamas could give Spain a scare in a potential final. The island country features three NBAers — Deandre Ayton, Buddy Hield and Eric Gordon — as well as a top-10 prospect for the loaded 2025 NBA Draft in V.J. Edgecombe.
Canada, meanwhile, faces the stacked United States in an exhibition game on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
As for the Olympics themselves, keep these times in mind on Saturday, July 27. At 2:52 p.m. ET / 11:52 a.m. PT, Canadian swim sensation Summer McIntosh figures to be racing for her first medal in a 400-metre freestyle showdown against reigning world champ Ariarne Titmus of Australia and American legend Katie Ledecky in one of the most anticipated races of the Games. Eight minutes later, we could have SGA and Co. against Giannis or Luka.
Sign us up.
Court concerns
Tennis players are accustomed to a regular rotation each year with a Grand Slam event capping each swing. The season starts on hard courts (Australian Open) before transitioning to clay (French Open), grass (Wimbledon) and back to hard courts (U.S. Open).
This year, however, it’s a different story and it will be interesting to see how it affects the sport.
The Olympic tournament will be played on the famous clay courts at Roland Garros, site of the French Open. The changed schedule doesn’t appeal to some — Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur are among those not playing in the Paris Games.
Another big name, 14-time French Open champ Rafael Nadal, took a pass on Wimbledon to gear up for the Games.
It marks the first time the Olympics will be played on clay since 1992 in Barcelona.
The ’92 men’s event, in particular, seemed to favour clay-courters. Marc Rosset of Switzerland won gold and he achieved his best Grand Slam results at the French Open. Jordi Arrese, a Barcelona native, won silver at home. He reached 12 tourney finals in his career — all on clay.
The top three seeds — Jim Courier, Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras, all of whom achieved far more career success than the Olympic finalists — were each eliminated before the quarterfinals.
Clay probably isn’t a great thing for Canadians, who tend to perform better on other surfaces.
Medal projections
Nielsen’s Gracenote’s latest Olympic medal projection has Canada finishing with 20 medals — down from its prediction of 22 in April. The analytics company has Canada finishing 12th overall in total medals.
Gracenote, per CBC, has Canada tabbed for six gold medals — two for McIntosh and one apiece for Marco Arop (track and field, men’s 800 metres), Damian Warner (track and field, decathlon), Philip Kim (men’s breaking) and Christa Deguchi (judo, women’s 57 kg).
Gracenote forecasts Canada’s men’s and women’s basketball teams and women’s soccer team to all miss the podium,
On the beach
Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes, who are ranked fourth in the world in women’s beach volleyball, opened an Olympic tune-up event with two nice victories on Thursday.
The Canadians downed Switzerland’s Joana Mäder and Anouk Vergé-Dépré 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 15-7) in the first contest for both teams at the Gstaad Elite 16 in Switzerland. The Swiss duo won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.
Later, Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes topped China’s Chen Xue and Xinyi Xia 2-1 (21-18, 16-21, 15-9). Xue captured bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
French feast
As Paris gets ready to host the Olympics, France has no shortage of big events on the July sporting calendar.
France’s men’s soccer team plays its Euro 2024 quarterfinal Friday against Portugal in Hamburg, Germany, while the 111th Tour de France continues to play out throughout the country. The cycling event, for the first time, will finish outside of Paris to accommodate the Olympics. The winner of this year’s event will be crowned July 21 more than 900 km away in Nice.
Meanwhile, the world’s top women’s golfers are in Evian-les-Bains, France next week for the Evian Championship — an LPGA major. Canada’s Brooke Henderson won the event in 2022.