The schedule for the men’s basketball tournament at the 2024 Olympics was officially released this week by FIBA, who put out a press release revealing the dates and times for all the Olympic games that will be played in France.
Team USA will be in action on July 28 (vs. Serbia), July 31 (vs. South Sudan), and August 3 (vs. the winner of the qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico). Following the round-robin stage of the tournament, the quarterfinals will be played on August 6, followed by the semifinals on Aug. 8 and the gold medal and bronze medal games on Saturday, Aug. 10.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- How heavily do NBA teams weigh a prospect’s performance in March Madness games on college basketball’s biggest stage? Jeremy Woo explores that topic in an Insider-only story for ESPN.com, writing that most evaluators consider it a small piece of a much larger puzzle. “You get to watch players in games where their backs are against the wall and see how they react to that,” one Eastern Conference scout said. “This is do or die. So some guys you can see that they shrivel in those situations, and some guys thrive.”
- Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports takes a look at the “complicated legacy” of the G League Ignite, considering the challenges the program for prospective NBA prospects faced and why it ultimately didn’t work. The league announced last week that the Ignite won’t be returning for the 2024/25 season.
- As the NBA investigates Jontay Porter due to irregularities related to prop bets, NCAA president Charlie Baker said the organization is looking to ban prop bets on college athletes, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Prop bets, which allow fans to wager on points, rebounds, assists, and other stats put up by specific player in single games, have already been prohibited for college sports in several states.
- Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca takes a closer look at the can of worms the Porter situation opens for the NBA, speaking to several sources about the issue, including one agent who says it will be “a wake-up call for everyone.”
Of course guys are betting on games. Although not typically betting within the league they play in. Mostly indirectly through their friends.
Gambling is going nowhere!! Gambling is literally the reason baseball and basketball have so many new casual fans. Baseball is a dream for sports bettors. They play EVERY day! Games in the afternoon and games at night. The apps have brought in fans to baseball gambling and back into baseball. Although it is just to gamble. If not for gambling right now you would see interest in ALL sports drop by a big level. Folks ain’t watching games. But they are analyzing stats and betting all day and night.
The whole reason you have college football games played on Tuesday and Wednesday is all about the gamblers. Nobody else cares about MAC football.
It’s a damn good way to end up on the streets…
Has no place in a civilised society…
The NBA has to nip this in the bud and look at the big picture…
It makes enough profit without gambling and what that does to the integrity of the sport…
It hasnt even taken a decade and the league is called a farce everytime the refs make a dumb move…
On top of that players are already trying to find ways to make their friends rich…
The NBA was fine without the addicted gamblers wasting money…