Olympics / Editor / 05 August 2008 / Leave a comment Bet Now

The vaunted 'Dream Team' missed out on gold in Athens, but are strongly favoured to do the job in Beijing. Can any other country come close? Nick Shiambouros rates the fancied nations...

The countdown to the Olympic Basketball tournament is well and truly underway and there are no prizes for guessing who are the favourites to take the gold medal in Beijing.

Team USA enter the competition as the red hot favourites trading at 1.34 on the exchange led by coach Mike Krzyzewski who has the unenviable task of harnessing the egos of the chosen few who have been selected to compete for gold. Team captain LeBron James and Kobe Bryant lead this truly all star line up and after the sensational defeat at the hands of Argentina four years ago nothing short of Olympic gold will do.

This team is younger than recent teams and Carmelo Anthony won't have his partner Allen Iverson with him on the trip as he was not selected. These two are scoring machines in Denver and I am slightly surprised that Iverson is not travelling to China. Dwayne Wade will have to put his T Mobile commitments on hold for the duration of the games and comes off a poor season with the Miami Heat. On the other hand Chris Paul had a super season with New Orleans and this young point guard is well worth his place in the line up.

Spain are worthy second favourites at 6.6 and have a host of players who play in the NBA. Pau Gasol is a national hero in Spain and is a team-mate of Kobe Bryant in LA, but both he and Bryant had a miserable NBA finals series against Boston and for long periods in that series Gasol looked lethargic and I lost count of how many times he turned the ball over. Calderon and Garbajosa are two players that know each others game very well as they both play for the Toronto Raptors and with shooting guard Juan-Carlos Navarro of the Washington Wizards will give the Americans plenty to think about when they meet on the 16th of August.

Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs leads Argentina in defence of the gold medal they won four years ago in Athens where he was named MVP. Currently Argentina are trading at 18.0 on the exchange and I am afraid that Ginobili will not have the assistance of teamates Tim Duncan and point guard Tony Parker to help him out in Beijing and I believe that this team is not as strong as the 2004 version.

Greece have attracted support, trading at 16.5 on the exchange, and look a very balanced team led by shooting guard Theo Papaloukas and an outstanding defensive player in Vasilopoulos.The Spain versus Greece match on the 10th of August should provide plenty of clues as to how good they are.

China the host nation are currently trading at 100.0 but the real story here is their great centre Yao Ming who sustained a injury last season and is a superstar in both China and America and plays for the Houston Rockets. Ming is idolized in his home country but they seem up against it as a team at this level.

Russia are trading at 26.0 after having been matched at 55.0 for the gold medal and have a NBA player in Andrei Kerelinko who has the nickname of AK47 when he plays for the Utah Jazz. He played well in the NBA playoffs and this team could progress in the tournament at a price.

Other teams that could go well in the tournament are Lithuania and Croatia but the Cleveland Cavaliers have not given permission to Zydrunas Iguaskas to play for Lithuania due to the risk of injury. Clearly the Cavs have not entered in to the Olympic spirit.

All in all I really cant see beyond Team USA even at the skinny price of 1.34.They have the most gifted team and as long as they can adjust to the slight but significant rules when it comes to "boxing out" and the "zone defence" that will be played in Beijing then the gold medal will come back with them. In fact they are so good they can play a half court game, a transition game and outscore anyone they face in China.

And if all else fails and they run out of ideas they can clear out and toss the ball to Kobe or LeBron, but in all probability deciding which one to give it to may be the hardest decision some of these players will have to make.