If you were wondering if Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo were going to miss an opportunity to compete for a place in the Olympics, you have shoved it deep in your eye.
The Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) begins Tuesday in Riga (Latvia), Valencia (Spain), San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Athens (Greece). Each tournament will offer a nation one of the last four spots for the Paris 2024 Olympic tournament, and as for the Athens tournament, the hype is clearly at its peak. Why? Because Luka Doncic’s Slovenia and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Greece – at home therefore – have a good chance of meeting in the final, and of offering us a kind of Game 7 with a place at the Olympics as a bonus. Incredible!
The Slovenians will first face Croatia and New Zealand, while Greece will have to warm up against Egypt and a dangerous Dominican Republic team. In the event of a perfect run, Slovenia and Greece will avoid each other in the semi-finals and could therefore face each other in the final. Not a piece of cake to get there, obviously, but the news of the day is in any case the presence of Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Hellenic roster, just to give his country every chance of reaching Paris this summer. He is accompanied by his brother Kostas, not by his other brother Thanasis, who is injured. The new Monegasque Nick Calathes will also be there.
The potential date for a monstrous Greece – Slovenia? Sunday July 7 at 8 p.m. By then, water will have flowed under the bridge, but note the day and time, just in case.
