Men's 5x5 basketball at 2024 Paris Olympics: How it works, Team USA stars, what to know

The rest of the world has closed the gap on U.S. men’s basketball . That’s evident at major international competitions such as the FIBA World Cup where the U.S. has not medaled since 2014.

But when the U.S. sends its very best to the Olympics, the Americans are favored to win gold, and that is the case in the 5x5 men’s basketball event at the Paris Olympics . The U.S. plays Serbia, South Sudan and Puerto Rico in Group C.

The U.S. has had the occasional close game in the Olympics, and lost to France 83-76 at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It was the Americans' only Olympic loss since losing in the semifinals of 2004 Athens Olympics, and the U.S. has won gold medals in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020.

The U.S. assembled another high-profile, All-Star roster to participate this summer, a group that includes LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry – the NBA’s biggest stars of the past 20 years.

Group play games will be played at Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille, France, which is 140 miles north of Paris. The quarterfinals, semifinals and final will be played at Accor Arena in Paris.

When did 5x5 men’s basketball become an Olympic sport?

Men’s 5x5 basketball made its Olympic debut in 1936 in Berlin, where the U.S. won the first of its 16 gold medals. At the ’36 Games, basketball was played outdoors, and James Naismith attended and awarded medals. The U.S. has won four consecutive gold medals since the 2004 Athens bronze-medal debacle, and the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Argentina are the only other nations to win gold in the past 56 years.

How does Olympic 5x5 men’s basketball work?

The men’s Olympic 5x5 event consists of 12 teams split into three four-team groups. Each team plays one game against the other three teams in the group stage, and the top two teams in each group plus two wildcards advance to the quarterfinals. In group play, a team receives two points for a victory and one point for a loss. The tiebreakers are 1) group points 2) head-to-head results 3) point differential 4) total points scored.

The Olympics use FIBA men’s senior team rules rather than NBA, and while the game looks similar, there are a few differences in FIBA including a shorter game (four, 10-minute quarter vs. NBA’s four 12-minute quarters), closer 3-point line (22 feet, 1¾ inches above the break, 21-feet, nine inches in the corner compared vs. NBA’s 23-9 and 22 feet), five personal fouls for disqualification (six in the NBA), the use of full zone defenses (there is no defensive three seconds in FIBA) and goaltending (the ball can be swatted after it touches the rim, which is not allowed in the NBA). While traveling rules are essentially the same in FIBA and NBA, FIBA referees are more diligent in enforcing the rule.

Who are the top Team USA athletes in 5x5 men’s basketball?

The U.S. has a star-studded roster – perhaps its most impressive roster since the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics, featuring Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and Lakers center Anthony Davis, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant and Suns guard Devin Booker, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum.

James, a four-time NBA champ and four-time MVP, won Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012; Durant, the leading Olympic scorer in the U.S. history (435 points/19.8 points per game), has three Olympic gold medals (2012, 2016, 2020; Tatum earned gold at the 2020 Games; Curry and Embiid will play in their first Olympics.

Golden State’s Steve Kerr is the head coach, and Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, Los Angeles Clippers' Ty Lue and Gonzaga University’s Mark Few are assistant coaches.

What's the international landscape in Olympic 5x5 men’s basketball?

It is expected that as many as 50 current and former NBA players will participate in Paris, including Denver Nuggets MVP Nikola Jokic for Serbia, Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for Canada and San Antonio Spurs rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama for France.

Canada will field its best Olympic team featuring a majority of NBA players (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett, Dillon Brooks, Lu Dort) and will be in contention for its first medal since winning silver at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. As the host country, France faces pressure to medal especially with Wembanyama, Nic Batum, Rudy Gobert and Even Fournier on the roster. It earned silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but had a disappointing 18th-place finish at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Following its World Cup gold last year, Germany (Orlando Magic’s Franz and Moritz Wagner and Brooklyn Nets’ Dennis Schroder) is a medal contender along with Serbia (Jokic, Atlanta Hawks’ Bogdan Bogdanovic, Miami Heat's Nikola Jovic) and Australia (Minnesota Timberwolves' Joe Ingles, Charlotte Hornets' Josh Green, Dallas Mavericks' Dante Exum and Chicago Bulls' Josh Giddey).

Greece and Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo are looking to medal, and Spain, though no longer in its golden years, still fields a solid team.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Men's 5x5 basketball at 2024 Paris Olympics: How it works, Team USA stars, what to know