Olympic basketball preview, July 28: U.S. men take the court, women’s competition begins

If those answers don’t come back in the affirmative, the path to a gold medal could be fraught. This is the deepest pool of talent the men’s competition has ever seen, and if you don’t think Team USA has realized the extent to which the gap has narrowed, just listen to what Kerr had to say earlier this week.

“It’s time, you know?” Kerr said during a group interview session with reporters at Thursday’s practice. “We’re not traveling around anymore. We’re here. We’ve got six games. We’ve got to get into the pool play, advance, and then it’s [like the] NCAA Tournament. So we need 40 minutes of force, attention, and focus, and we can’t let teams outplay us with effort and energy like we did the other night against Germany, like we did against South Sudan.”

History is there for the taking, and for many of this team’s biggest names, Paris represents their last shot at Olympic glory. It’s time.

The women’s tournament gets underway

The U.S. women’s team has to wait until Monday for their Paris debut, but Group A will get underway on Sunday with a pair of intriguing matchups. 2016 silver medalists Spain face off against China, while upstart Puerto Rico meets 2016 bronze medalists Serbia in just its second-ever Olympics appearance.