While the 2024 Paris Olympics officially begins with Friday’s opening ceremony, the basketball tournament begins on Saturday July 27. The preliminary games will be played in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, a little over 200 kilometers from the host city. The top two teams from each of the three groups, together with the two third-placed teams with the best record, will travel to Paris for the knockout stage of the tournament, with the quarterfinals taking place on Tuesday August 6, the semifinals on Thursday August 8 and the medal games on Saturday August 10.

Like in most international basketball tournaments, many fans will be looking forward to seeing the highly-regarded USA team in action, boasting an All Star lineup that includes LeBron James, Steph Curry and Jayson Tatum. Canada looks like it can cause some damage, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, RJ Barrett and Dillon Brooks leading the way.

While Israel is not participating, how about the players with the Israel connection, whether they have played in Israel or are set to play in Israel next season, or players who have lined up against Israeli teams in European play? Here are some of the players to watch over the next couple of weeks.

Joe Ingles and Dante Exum (Australia – Group A with Greece, Canada and Spain)

While Joe Ingles is more or less a household name since joining the Utah Jazz in 2014, he suited up for Maccabi Tel Aviv immediately prior to his move to the US (and played for FC Barcelona for three seasons before moving to Israel), helping the Yellow & Blue win their most-recent EuroLeague title in the 2013-14 three-peat season.

After being drafted by the Jazz with the fifth overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft and spending time both in Utah and Cleveland, Exum signed with Barcelona for the 2021-22 season after his opportunities in the NBA dried up, where he played against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the EuroLeague. He then moved to Partizan Belgrade for the 2022-23 season, where the Serbians beat their cross-town rivals Red Star Belgrade to win the ABA League Championship and pushed eventual EuroLeague champions to five games in their quarterfinal series. His performance earned him a contract with the Dallas Mavericks for the 2023-24 season, where he played a role off the bench in the Finals’ loss to the Boston Celtics.

Along with Australian captain Patty Mills and women’s legend Lauren Jackson, Paris will be Ingles’s fifth Olympics. Ingles will likely play a role off the bench for a Green & Gold outfit hoping to add to their Olympic medal collection after taking home the Bronze medal in Tokyo. While Exum is more of a key piece of the Australian rotation, he is likely to miss the team’s opener on Sunday as a result of dislocating his finger in the final warmup against France.

Rudy Fernández, Sergio Llull and Lorenzo Brown (Spain – Group A with Australia, Greece and Canada)

Spanish basketball legend Rudy Fernández is going to make history in Paris as the first basketballer to compete in six Olympic Games before hanging up the boots after a fine career. The small forward, who was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 2007 draft and played three seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, spent a majority of his career with Real Madrid, where he became a three-time EuroLeague champion, seven-time Liga ACB champion, seven-time Spanish King’s Cup winner and 9-time Spanish Supercup winner. On the international stage, Fernández has two FIBA World Cup gold medals and four FIBA EuroBasket gold medals, as well as a pair of Olympic silver medals (2008 Beijing and 2012 London) and a bronze medal (2016 Rio de Janeiro).

Fernández’s Real Madrid teammate, Sergio Llull, is another Spanish basketball legend who does not seem to be slowing down. Llull has been with Real Madrid since 2007, where he has won three EuroLeague titles, seven Liga ACB championships and six Spanish King’s Cups. He has also won the EuroLeague MVP (2017) and was named to the EuroLeague 2010-20 All-Decade Team.

Fernández and Llull have caused nightmares for Maccabi Tel Aviv fans over the years, including for their Spanish teammate Lorenzo Brown, who together with Wade Baldwin IV formed arguably the best backcourt in Europe when they were both fit over the past two seasons.

After being drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 52nd overall pick of the 2013 NBA draft, Brown never found his groove in the US and so he found himself in Europe, where he played for Red Star Belgrade, Fenerbahçe and UNICS Kazan, before finally finding a home in Tel Aviv for 2022-24. Brown won back-to-back Winner League titles with the Yellow & Blue during his time in Israel, as well as making an All EuroLeague First Team (2023) and Second Team (2024). Like many of his teammates, he departed the Holy Land after the 2023-24 season and he will line up for current EuroLeague champions Panathinaikos next season.

Brown was granted Spanish citizenship in July 2022 and immediately made an impact for the national team, winning the EuroBasket gold medal with Fernández and Llull. The Spaniards have a tough draw, being grouped with Australia, Canada and Greece, but no one will be surprised if this talented team manage to get out of the group of death and make some noise in Paris.

Nick Calathes and Dinos Mitoglou (Greece – Group A with Australia, Canada and Spain)

Florida Gators product Nick Calathes was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 45th pick of the 2009 NBA draft. While he played with the Memphis Grizzlies from 2013-15, the veteran is a current legend of European basketball, having won a EuroLeague championship with Panathinaikos in 2010-11, as well as six Greek League championships and four Greek Cups. He is also leads the EuroLeague in career assists (2,085) and steals (449) and he will be looking to add to these records when he takes the court for AS Monaco for the 2024-25 season.

Dinos Mitoglou enjoyed a career-best season for Panathinaikos in 2023-24, starting 35 of his 38 games in Europe. He caused trouble for Maccabi under the basket in their quarterfinal series, averaging 9.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in a little under 28 minutes, with the Greeks winning the series 3-2 on their way to the EuroLeague title, their first since 2011. Mitoglou’s impressive resume also includes five Greek League championships and two Greek State Cups, as well as an Italian League/Cup double from the sole season he spent with Olimpia Milano in 2021-22.

Calathes has a bronze medal in his cabinet from the 2009 EuroBasket, but he and Mitoglou, together with arguably the best player in the world, Giannis Antetokounmpo, under coach Vassilis Spanoulis (who was named to the All-Tournament team as a player in 2009 and was also a member of the EuroLeague 2010-20 All-Decade Team), will be hoping to go far.

Nando De Colo, Mathias Lessort and Guerschon Yabusele (France – Group B with Germany, Japan and Brazil)

French veteran, Nando De Colo, was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the 53rd pick of the 2009 NBA draft. While he never made his mark in the NBA, he has had a successful career in Europe, with two EuroLeague championships with CSKA Moscow, one of which was in 2016 when he was also named the EuroLeague MVP and the Final Four MVP. He was also named to the was named to the EuroLeague 2010-20 All-Decade Team. For France, he has a silver medal from Tokyo 2020, a bronze medal from the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China and EuroBasket gold (2013 Slovenia), silver (2011 Lithuania_ and bronze (2015 France).

While he was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with pick 50 of the 2017 NBA draft, Mathias Lessort has not yet suited up at all in the NBA. Macabi Tel Aviv fans remember Lessort for his three-month contract in September 2021 to replace injured starting center Ante Žižić. He has since gone on to be one of the dominant centers in the league, most-recently helping Panathinaikos win the 2023-24 EuroLeague championship, its first title in 13 years. He also made Yellow & Blue fans question why he was ever allowed to leave the team in the quarterfinals, averaging 14.6 points and 7.6 rebounds for a Performance Index Rating of 23 points in the Greens 3-2 quarterfinal series win over Maccabi.

Guerschon Yabusele was drafted with the 16th pick of the 2016 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, but only played limited time with the team from 2017-19. He has, however, made his mark in Europe, winning the 2023 EuroLeague title with Real Madrid. For the national team, he has silver medals from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 EuroBasket in Germany.

While they have one of the most impressive rosters – which includes Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert, the French have a 2-4 record from their preparation games and go into the tournament on the back of a four-game losing streak. However, the French team is playing in front home crowd and so they will be hoping that the home court advantage will help them go far in the tournament. Can the hosts finish on the podium in what is likely to be De Colo’s farewell tour?

Vasilije Micić and Bogdan Bogdanović (Serbia – Group C with South Sudan, Puerto Rico and the USA)

Vasilije Micić was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 52nd pick in the 2014 NBA draft. He never played for the 76ers, who traded his draft rights to the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of the Al Horford trade, where he finally signed a contract before the 2023-24 season. His opportunities were limited in Oklahoma, but after he was traded to the Charlotte Hornets in earlier this year, he averaged 10.8 points and 6.2 assists in 30 games. Of course, before playing in the NBA, Micić was one of the stars of Europe, where he won back-to-back EuroLeague titles with Anadolu Efes in 2020-21 and 2021-22, winning the Final Four MVP in both seasons and taking home the EuroLeague MVP in 2020-21. He has also won a silver medal for Serbia in the 2017 EuroBasket in Turkey, to go along with a pair of silvers from the 2013 U19 World Cup in the Czech Republic and the 2011 U18 European Championship in Poland.

Bogdan Bogdanović is a household name in the NBA, having played there already seven seasons. After initially being drafted by the Phoenix Suns with the 27th pick in the first round of the 2014 NBA draft, his draft rights were traded to the Sacramento Kings in 2016, where he played for three seasons before joining the Atlanta Hawks in November 2020, where he remains to this day. Before he started his career in the US, Bogdanović played in the EuroLeague with both Partizan Belgrade from 2010-2014 and then with Fenerbahçe from 2014-2017. His European accolades include a the 2017 EuroLeague title, two EuroLeague Rising Star awards (2014 and 2015) and being named to the EuroLeague 2010-20 All-Decade Team. On the national team, Bogdanović has four silver medals from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the 2023 Philippines-Japan-Indonesia and 2014 Spain World Cups and the 2017 EuroBasket in Turkey, as well as the silver from the 2013 U19 World Cup in the Czech Republic.

Serbia has arguably the best player in the world, Nikola Jokić, who has won three of the last four NBA MVP trophies. While they have a plethora of silver medals from recent competitions, Jokić, together with Micić and Bogdanović – all of whom are 29-30 years of age – will be hoping that this is the time to go one step further and finally take home the gold.

Wenyen Gabriel, Nuni Omot and Mangok Mathiang (South Sudan – Group C with Serbia, Puerto Rico and the USA)

Wenyen Gabriel made the news in Israel recently being Maccabi Tel Aviv’s first off-season signing of a foreigner who has not previously played in the Holy Land, with Hapoel Tel Aviv’s Jaylen Hoard (who missed the final cut for the French team) and Hapoel Jerusalem’s Levi Randolph being the first foreigner signings of the summer. After playing college at Kentucky, Gabriel has tried his luck in the US over the last six seasons, but he will be looking for success in Europe for the first time with the Israeli champions. Gabriel first joined the South Sudan national team in August 2023 for their international debut in the 2023 World Cup, finishing 17th overall and Qualifying for Paris as the top-ranked African team.

While Nuni Omot has spent time in the US and Europe since finishing at Baylor in 2018. He landed in Israel in April, 2024, where he played for newly-promoted Ramat Gan for the tail-end of the 2023-24 season (together with fellow South Sudanese player Mangok Mathiang), where the newly-promoted team finished third in the standings after the regular season. Like Gabriel, Omot played for the national team in the 2023 World Cup, playing a crucial role to help them qualify for Paris.

South Sudan famously gave the US team a run for their money in their final preparation game for the Olympics, going down 100-101 after leading 58-44 at halftime. While the best player in that game was Carlik Jones who finished with a triple double (15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists), Gabriel (9 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal) and Omot (11 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists) made healthy contributions. The debutants will come up against the USA again in group play. They will be hoping that their warmup game was no outlier and see if they can make some noise in the tournament.

The Paris 2024 basketball competition begins on Saturday July 27, with Australia taking on France at 12:00 IDT / 5:00 EDT. The full schedule can be found on the FIBA website