When International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach stood at a podium at the closing ceremony of the 2020 Olympics in August 2021 – there was a pandemic, remember – he pointed forward to the 2024 Olympics in accordance with the tradition of the Games:
“I call upon the youth of the world to assemble three years from now in Paris, France, to celebrate with us the Games of the 33rd Olympiad.”
Plenty of young people answered. There will be more than 10,000 athletes in France. But a look at the rosters of the 12 competing nations in men’s basketball reminds us there is a wide range of ages among the players.
These Olympians are the best at every age involved in the men's basketball competition, from the teenager to the gentleman old enough to be his dad.
MORE: Complete Olympic TV schedule, all sports
Best Olympic men's basketball players by age
17 – Khaman Maluach
Country: South Sudan
Position: Center
Height: 7-2
Overview: Duke fans who watched South Sudan’s narrow exhibition loss to the United States had to be invigorated by the sight of their promising recruit scoring 7 points in 12 minutes, including a 3-pointer and another long jumpshot. A product of the NBA Academy Africa in Senegal, Maluach led the Basketball Africa League in rebounding and was named MVP of the Basketball Without Borders camp in 2023.
18 – None
19 – None
20 – Victor Wembanyama
Country: France
Position: Center
Height: 7-4
Overview: The No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Wembanyama averaged 21.4 points and 10.6 rebounds in his rookie year with the San Antonio Spurs. And at home in Paris, his combination with Minnesota defensive ace Rudy Gobert figures to be a frightening combination for opponents. France has lost exhibition games to both Serbia and Canada, though, with Wembanyama scoring only 10 points in 26 minutes. Perhaps he’s pacing himself. But given that he led the team in assists, it may be more an issue of deficient backcourt play. The opposition would love for that to be true.
21 – Josh Giddey
Country: Australia
Position: Point guard
Height: 6-8
Overview: Giddey played a career-low 25 minutes a game for the Oklahoma City Thunder last season, falling below 6 assists per game for the first time. With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander emerging as a superstar at point guard, it no longer made sense to have Giddey function as a shooting guard who couldn’t shoot. He’s since been traded to the Chicago Bulls. But with Australia, his role is clear: He runs the show. In a 98-92 exhibition loss to the U.S., Giddey overpowered nearly every defender matched against him and rang up 17 points and 7 assists. He’ll be essential to Australia’s desire to repeat as medalists.
22 – Anthony Edwards
Country: United States
Position: Shooting guard
Height: 6-4
Overview: Edwards could become the next genuinely great American player. He’s been an All-Star each of his past two seasons and averaged 25.9 points and 5.1 assists for Minnesota. He does not lack for offensive confidence, even with future Hall of Famers Steph Curry and LeBron James as teammates. He is the only U.S. player who has attempted double-figure shots in each of the team’s four exhibition games, and he averaged 13.5 points in those four victories.
MORE: Ranking the players on Team USA
23 – Santi Aldama
Country: Spain
Position: Power forward
Height: 6-11
Overview: The last pick of the NBA first round in 2021, Aldama accelerated his impact with the Memphis Grizzlies this past season. He played a career-high 27 minutes a game and averaged 10.7 points and 5.8 rebounds. With the Gasol brothers long gone from Spain’s golden era, Aldama has become an important part of the Spain frontcourt. In the win over the Bahamas that clinched qualification, Aldama led Spain in minutes and rebounds and was one of four double-figure scorers.
24 – Tyrese Haliburton
Country: United States
Position: Point guard
Height: 6-5
Overview: Coming off his breakthrough All-NBA season, Haliburton is the most pass-happy point guard the USA took to Paris. He averaged 20.1 points and 10.9 assists in his fourth NBA season and led the Pacers to the Eastern Conference finals. He made two 3-pointers to clinch the exhibition victory against Australia, but got benched against South Sudan because he couldn’t handle former Louisville guard Carlik Jones (to be fair, few of his teammates managed either).
25 – Lu Dort
Country: Canada
Position: Small forward
Height: 6-6
Overview: Dort is a glue guy, in the sense that he’ll glue himself to whichever player is the opposition’s best perimeter scorer. He is entering his sixth season in the NBA, all with the Thunder, and he has become a reliable double-figure scorer and massively improved shooter. He has not been scoring with Canada – literally, he had 0 points against the USA and France in exhibitions – but Canada viewed his wide range of contributions to be worth an average of 17 minutes off the bench in those two games.
26 – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Country: Canada
Position: Point guard
Height: 6-6
Overview: Gilgeous-Alexander has become one of professional basketball’s best guards, a first-team All-NBA choice this season. For the United States, one of the nightmares they’ll try to suppress over the next couple weeks is a vision of meeting Canada in the knockout rounds of the tournament and having Gilgeous-Alexander go all SGA on the Americans. He’s capable of a 40-point day in this circumstance. The U.S. brought two defense-first guards to address that possibility. But sometimes great offense beats great defense.
27 – Devin Booker
Country: United States
Position: Shooting guard
Height: 6-6
Overview: One of the world’s best shooters, with 1,241 career 3-pointers and more than 14,000 career points in nine seasons, Booker is working to find a role with the U.S. that may wind up being usurped by Kevin Durant. Booker could be an ideal stationary shooter to play on the opposite side of the floor from Steph Curry, but when he started against South Sudan along with LeBron James and Joel Embid, the ball didn’t find Booker often enough in a shot-ready situation. He hasn’t made more than a single 3-pointer in any of the team’s exhibitions.
28 – Dillon Brooks
Country: Canada
Position: Small forward
Height: 6-6
Overview: Brooks can be a handful, and you’re free to interpret that however you wish. The Grizzlies traded him a year after he played 11 playoff games in two rounds, and the return wasn’t overwhelming. With the Grizz in 2022-23, he was suspended a game by the league because he’d been rung up 16 times with technical fouls, which takes a fair amount of effort. He paid nearly a quarter-million dollars in fines. Things seemed to settle a bit after he was moved to Houston this past season, and he has earned a starting job for Canada – keeping a player as rugged as Dort on the bench. Brooks scored 8 points in the win over France.
29 – Nikola Jokic
Country: Serbia
Position: Center
Height: 6-11
Overview: You will not see Giannis Antetokounmpo’s name on this list, which is curious given some of the players who did make it. But it so happens he and Jokic are the same age, so – sorry. One of them had to go. And it’s the world’s best player left standing. Jokic is so physically powerful he can impact an opponent’s entire frontcourt. He’s so skilled it’s like he’s some sort of AI bot come to life, programmed for genius. It may not be enough to carry Serbia to gold, but every opponent will begin the game fearing what his singular brilliance might generate.
30 – Joel Embiid
Country: United States
Position: Center
Height: 7-0
Overview: A five-time All-NBA selection, Embiid committed to play for the United States after becoming a citizen last autumn and has said he would like to win a gold medal for his son, who was born in this country. He’ll need to commit to playing with greater energy now. After a truncated season in which he was limited by injury to 39 games, Embiid has been a starter in every USA Basketball exhibition, along with Steph Curry and LeBron James. And he’s looked pretty dreadful: not in shape, not imposing his will against smaller defenders, not working for the best possible shot on offense. This is a serious competition, not some rehab assignment for him to work on his game.
31 – Anthony Davis
Country: United States
Position: Center
Height: 6-11
Overview: It once seemed Davis, given his superior defensive ability and developing offensive skill, would stand where Jokic does now. But Davis’ body has not been as cooperative. Coming off the Lakers’ 2020 NBA title, he averaged 46 games over the next three seasons. He has been All-NBA five times, but he has fallen short of becoming the best in the game. Davis managed a healthy 2023-24, though, and will be perhaps the most important player for USA Basketball given the presence of such exceptional opposing bigs as Jokic, Giannis and the Paris twin (Eiffel) towers.
32 – Rudy Gobert
Country: France
Position: Center
Height: 7-1
Overview: In putting together this item, I discovered in Gobert’s stat profile at Basketball Reference that some have assigned him the nickname “The French Rejection”. I’m not sure how universal that is, but it’s still hilarious. And it fits. Gobert is a seven-time member of the NBA’s All-Defensive team and four-time Defensive Player of the Year. As rare as it may be in the modern game, Gobert has experience playing alongside another big man from his two seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Karl-Anthony Towns, which included a run to the Western Conference finals.
33 – Lorenzo Brown
Country: Spain
Position: Shooting guard
Height: 6-5
Overview: Brown’s 18 points led Spain in their victory against the Bahamas in the final of the Olympic qualifying tournament, and he also contributed 15 in a tough semifinal win over Finland. Brown’s career has not been ascending since he entered his 30s – he averaged 12.1 points in the EuroLeague this season, down from 16.5 the prior seasons – but he might be more important to Spain as top players such as Victor Claver and Ricky Rubio left the game. Brown grew up in Georgia and played at NC State but was offered the opportunity to compete for Spain internationally in July 2022. He helped lead Spain to the EuroBasket gold that summer. This is his first Olympic games. Oddly, he’ll be playing professionally in his eighth country this season – but Spain is nowhere on that list.
34 – Jrue Holiday
Country: United States
Position: Guard
Height: 6-4
Overview: Holiday has become a serial winner in his 30s. He was huge for the Milwaukee Bucks as they won the 2021 NBA title with his 17.3 points and 8.1 assists per game. He had fewer playmaking responsibilities in his first season with the Celtics, which included their first NBA championship in more than a decade, but they kept him on the floor just as long for his defense and versatility. And that’s why USA Basketball wanted him on their side, again. He’s one of the players on the squad (LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum, Bam Adebayo) who previously won gold. Holiday can function as a point guard or shooting guard and will become one of the team’s most important defenders when it’s time to lock down.
35 – Kevin Durant
Country: United States
Position: Center
Height: 6-11
Overview: Durant’s decision to enter the 2020 Games (in 2021) during the latter stages of the pandemic saved USA Basketball from breaking their gold-medal streak in Japan. He delivered perhaps the best Olympic performance of any American player, ever, with outputs of 29 points, 23 points and 29 points in the final three elimination games. He shot only 37.5 percent from deep in that tournament, but he willed himself to the big numbers the team needed by converting 68 percent of his 2-point attempts in elimination games. He has been bothered by a calf injury through the pre-Olympic exhibitions, but his presence in the real games could be the difference in Paris.
36 – Steph Curry
Country: United States
Position: Guard
Height: 6-3
Overview: Curry won gold twice with USA Basketball at the World Cup, in 2010 and 2014, so it’s kind of a surprise this is his first trip to the Olympics. But in 2016 the Warriors were coming off consecutive Finals appearances, and the Tokyo Games during the pandemic weren’t as enticing. He wanted to be a part of this group, though, and he has been a featured part of the offense during the exhibitions. Curry has established himself as the greatest outside shooter in the sport’s history; his 3,747 3-pointers rank first in the NBA. And it’s not just the numbers; it’s also the impact on the sport. Few players in the sport’s history changed the game so dramatically.
37 – Nando de Colo
Country: France
Position: Small forward
Height: 6-5
Overview: In two seasons in the NBA, de Colo failed to make an impression, but those who follow the international game are aware he’s never really gone away. This is his fourth Olympics, and it was his 25-point performance against Luka Doncic and Slovenia in France’s semifinal win at the 2020 Tokyo Games that helped assure no worse than a silver medal for his country. He scored another 12 in the final against the U.S. And he’s still producing at this advanced age, starting and recording 11 points in France’s exhibition loss to Canada in advance of Paris.
38 – None
39 – LeBron James
Country: United States
Position: Power forward
Height: 6-9
Overview: James nominally is the power forward for the USA in this, his fourth Olympics, but coach Steve Kerr is using him to initiate the offense in order to distort opposing defenses. With the possible exception of Haliburton, he’s the best playmaker on the team, anyway, and it’s disruptive to other power forwards to deal with guarding the ball and James’ ability to attack the lane. And he’s not afraid of the big moment: When the U.S. faced the possibility of an embarrassing pre-tournament loss to South Sudan, James was the player who drove for the game-winning layup.
MORE: LeBron James a perfect choice to be flagbearer at opening ceremony
40 – None
41 – Marcelinho Huertas
Country: Brazil
Position: Point guard
Height: 6-3
Overview: The nation that gave us 38-year-old Oscar Schmidt at Atlanta 96 has outdone itself – by three years. Huertas will be the grand old man of Olympic basketball in Paris. After playing high school basketball in Texas, Huertas chose to turn professional at 18 in Brazil’s top league, Novo Basquete, and played there three seasons before moving to Spain, where he has played the majority of his career (with Joventut and Barcelona, among others) in the world’s second-best pro league, the ACB. He led the league in assists three times and won three league titles. He helped Brazil win the FIBA South American championship in 2006 and the 2007 Pan American Games. Huertas spent two seasons in the NBA, which consisted of 76 games with the Lakers, but in fairness to him he was already 32 when he arrived.
