USA massive favorite over Canada, France to win gold at Olympics

The star-studded collection of USA Basketball players gathered in Las Vegas over the weekend to begin training camp ahead of the Paris Olympics later in July.

Team USA is filled with future Hall of Famers looking to win the country its fifth consecutive gold medal. The rest of the world has narrowed the talent gap that used to be enormous between U.S.-born and foreign-born players, evidenced by many of the NBA's stars from overseas.

However, the U.S. still has the world's deepest collection of basketball talent. Many of the country's biggest stars assembled like The Avengers, hoping to win another gold medal and leading America to open as massive favorites.

Olympic basketball gold medal odds

Team USA created a balanced roster with historically influential players past their primes and young, emerging superstars.

LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry are presumed starters - although Durant is currently dealing with a calf injury - but Anthony Edwards, Joel Embiid, and Jayson Tatum join the group as its most impactful players.

Durant leads the team with three gold medals in the last three Olympics. James has two golds (2008, 2012) but hasn't played in the Games in over a decade. Curry will play in his first Olympics despite a 15-year NBA career.

Embiid wasn't born in the U.S. but became an American citizen in 2022, making him eligible to play for Team USA, which he chose over France and Cameroon.

Devin Booker, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Haliburton, and Jrue Holiday round out Team USA's loaded roster.

Canada doesn't have the depth or top-end talent America does, but it's become a basketball hotbed in recent years and has its best international team ever entering Paris.

Canada earned a bronze medal at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, its best finish at an international event. Its roster features MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, NBA champion Jamal Murray, Dillon Brooks, Lu Dort, and RJ Barrett.

Although still a long shot, Canada is Team USA's biggest threat and has the second-best odds with a roster filled with NBA players. Canada has a difficult group featuring Greece, Australia, and Spain.

France is a mainstay in international competition and one of the European countries closing the gap on the United States. The top two picks in the 2024 NBA Draft came from France, although neither will suit up in the Olympics.

France snapped Team USA's 25-game Olympic win streak at the 2020 Games before America avenged the loss in a tight gold-medal matchup. Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert comprise France's frontcourt, creating a freakishly large rim-protecting duo who'll frighten opponents from attacking the basket.

Nicolas Batum, Bilal Coulibaly, and Evan Fournier are other notable names playing for France.

Giannis Antetokounmpo helped Greece qualify for its first Olympics since 2008. Antetokounmpo and Serbia's Nikola Jokic are two other perennial MVP candidates who'll play on basketball's global stage. Bogdan Bogdanovic and Nikola Jovic will join Jokic on Serbia's squad.

Serbia is consistently a threat as one of Europe's top basketball nations, developing its talent to compete with the rest of the world. Jokic hasn't played in the Olympics since 2016, when Serbia earned a silver medal after a championship loss to Team USA. It also earned silver at the 2023 FIBA World Cup without Jokic.

It would be a monumental upset and colossal failure if USA Basketball fails to win gold after bringing its top talent to Paris. This will likely be James' and Durant's last Olympics, the latter of which has a chance to cement his place in USA Basketball lore by passing Carmelo Anthony for the most gold medals by a player in the organization's history (Anthony has three gold medals and one bronze).

Even if the winner is likely a foregone conclusion, exciting basketball featuring the sport's top names will ensue in Paris at the end of July.

Sam Oshtry is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on X @soshtry for more betting coverage.