In the fight for the ticket that leads to Paris and the 2024 Olympic Games, the National Basketball Team faces the Dominican Republic tonight (7/3, 9pm), at the Paz e Amizade Stadium
Greece secured one of the four pre-Olympic tournaments, giving the representative group the advantage of playing home and away in an attempt to secure first place, the only place that guarantees participation in the Games in the French capital.
The Greek national team last participated in the Olympic Games in Beijing (2008), where they finished fifth with current coach Vassilis Spanoulis at the helm. Since then, they have been absent from London (2012), Rio de Janeiro (2016) and Tokyo (2020), completing an absence of 16 years.
The blue and white team’s efforts will be supported by one of the best players in the world, Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Milwaukee Bucks star is looking forward to playing in the Olympics, as it is an experience he has yet to experience in his great career.
Together with their brother, Kostas and Papanikolaou, Wokap, Kalathis, Mitoglou, Papagianni, Larentzakis, Toliopoulos, Charalambopoulos, Kalaitzakis and Moraitis will try to bring joy to the Greek fans, who are expected to create full attention at the SEF for the national team.
On the other hand, the National Team also has significant absences, the most typical being Slukas, MVP of this year’s Euroleague Final-4 and the Greek championship. Papapetrou and Thanasis Antetokounmpo were also left out.
The presence of Spanoulis, who was an active player until 2021, created a very good atmosphere in the locker room and in training. The players are united, united, and this is the first ingredient of a healthy team that dreams big.
Greece is in Group B of the tournament, alongside the Dominican Republic and Egypt, who they will face on Thursday (04/07, at 9pm). Clearly more difficult is Group A, made up of Slovenia, Croatia and New Zealand. Each team will play two matches, one against each opponent in their group.
The top two teams from each group advance to the semi-finals and play a crossover (A1-B2, B1-A2) in knockout matches in the semi-finals on Saturday (7/6), with the winners of the semi-finals facing off in the final on Sunday (7/7, 9pm) for the only ticket to the “city of light”.