By Aris Barkas
The draw in Rio produced two paths for Olympic glory. The first one in Group A will start by the hardest way, having USA, Argentina, France, Tunisia and the two best teams of the Pre-Olympic qualifying tournament play against each other in the first round.
If a team can survive that, then it can hope for a easier mission in the quarter-finals where the path will cross with that of Group B, that includes host Great Britain, Spain, Australia, Brazil, China and the third team of the Pre-Olympic qualifying tournament. A team like Spain might have a stroll in the first round, but it seems that after that the level of competition in general favors most teams from Group A.
The 12-team FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men, as it’s officially called, will be held in Venezuela and besides the host team, includes Angola, Dominican Republic, FYROM, Greece, Jordan, Korea, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Puerto Rico and Russia. It will be no surprise to see three teams from Europe qualifying to the Olympics, with Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic trying to “steal” one place from them.