With the Olympics over, the United States continued to dominate the basketball tournament, although in the semifinals and finals they feared they might be without gold for the first time since 2004.
The Americans were led to gold by Steph Curry, who confirmed that he is probably the best shooter of all time, LeBron James (MVP of the tournament), and Kevin Durant, who won his fourth gold medal in Paris and became the only player with four gold medals from the Games.
When it comes to players from other national teams, in the foreground is the star of Denver, MVP of the NBA league and representative of Serbia, Nikola Jokić - he played a phenomenal tournament, and besides him, ESPN singles out Viktor Vembanjama. The young basketball player emerged as a new star and won silver with France.
But the tournament in Paris was also an opportunity for some other players to try to impose themselves and either return to the NBA or play there for the first time in the future. ESPN singled out seven players who would have a future in the strongest basketball league in the world.
Gershon Jabusele (France) - he already played in the NBA league for Boston. He was excellent at the OI, in the final against the USA he scored 20 points, and his dunk over Lebron is also remembered.
Bruno Caboclo (Brazil) - is no longer in Partizan's plans. Kaboklo previously played for Toronto, Sacramento, Memphis and Houston in the NBA, and at the OI he averaged 17,3 points and seven rebounds. He has offers from the Euroleague, it is speculated that he is the closest to returning to the USA, which would also make Partizan happy because in that case he would receive compensation.
John Hawkinson (Japan) - has never been in the NBA. In Paris, he was one of the best shooters from the perimeter, while with 9,7 rebounds, he was in second place among the best jumpers. He averaged 18,3 points, and his best game was against Brazil, when he scored 26 points.
Karlik John (South Sudan) - this season he will certainly not play in the NBA, because the deadline for him to move to the USA has expired, so he became a Partizan basketball player. Jones played an excellent tournament in Paris, averaging 18 points and 7,7 assists. Before Paris, he had a triple-double performance in the control match against the USA.
Mathias Lessor (France) - "tricolor" coach Vincent Kole said during the Games for Lesor that he deserves to play in the NBA and that he doesn't understand how the American teams don't see it. At the Olympic tournament, he averaged 7,2 points and 3,3 rebounds, and his playing time was limited due to France's strong center line. ESPN writes that Lesor would be most suited to Orlando's style of play, but there is currently no talk of a move to the NBA considering that he has a contract with Panathinaikos.
Filip Petrushev (Serbia) - he already tried in the NBA, in Sacramento and Philadelphia, but quickly returned to Europe. However, he played great in Paris, averaging 23 minutes, during which he recorded 10 points. He is under contract with Olympiakos, and ESPN states that the clubs could consider hiring the Serbian representative once again.
Ernangomes Villas (Spain) - he was also in the NBA before, he played for New York, Charlotte and New Orleans. The previous season he returned to Europe and played in Barcelona. At the Games, he averaged about 19 points in about 12 minutes. During his career in the NBA, he proved to be a good offensive player, but his weakness was his defensive game, writes ESPN.
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