We know Team USA is the heavy favorite to take home the gold medal this summer at the Olympics in Rio, but that doesn't mean we should skip over the games entirely. France has three high-caliber NBA players (Tony Parker, Nic Batum and Rudy Gobert) in its starting lineup. Spain doesn't have Marc Gasol, but Pau, Ricky Rubio and Rudy Fernandez are still there.
Olympic basketball schedule 2016: Team USA makes its debut on Opening Day
Also, Australia takes on France in what should be the best game of the day.
And even if Team USA is all but a sure thing to capture the gold, there are still two other medals there for the taking and a plethora of talented basketball players in Rio interested in bringing them home. That's the great part about Olympic basketball, which begins its schedule on Saturday: it gives fans an opportunity to become familiar with different teams, styles and players from all over the world.
Day 1 of Olympic basketball features an intriguing matchup between a deep Australian team and France, which might just be the second-best team in the tournament. Australia has a number of NBA players on its roster, from Patty Mills to Joe Ingles to Matthew Dellavedova. France has three premier NBA players in its starting lineup and Boris Diaw coming off the bench.
After that we’ll get to watch the latest version of Team USA make its Olympics debut. The Americans will face China, a team it beat by a total of 99 points in two exhibition games.
The evening will end with Serbia taking on Venezuela. Below is the full schedule.
2016 Rio Olympics men’s basketball coverage for Saturday
All times Eastern
Events: Australia vs. France (1:15 p.m.), China vs. USA (6 p.m.), Venezuela vs. Serbia (9:30 p.m.)
TV: NBC (6 p.m.)
Online Streaming: NBC Sports Stream 1 (1:15 p.m.), Stream 2 (6 p.m.), Stream 3 (9:30 p.m.)
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