We’re one day away from the start of the basketball event at the Rio Olympics 2016. The event will see 12 teams battle it out for gold, silver and bronze over the course of just over two weeks. While serial-winners USA are strong favourites to win gold again, we look at Spain’s credentials after they emerged with silver in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. Over the last few years, Spain has emerged as one of the stronger teams in the world of basketball and they will certainly be hoping they can put the icing on the cake with gold this year.
Spain Olympics Basketball Squad
Spain have retained 8 of the 12 member squad that travelled to London with Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Fernando San Emeterio and Victor Sada, the 4 players to miss out on this year’s team. This represents a strong core of the squad that nearly pushed USA all the way 4 years ago and represents a strong unit capable of challenging any team. Spain’s most recent success came in the 2015 EuroBasket where they emerged champions. 4 players in the current roster – Pau Gasol, Jose Manuel Caledron, Ricky Rubio and Nikola Mirotic ply their trade in the NBA, where Alex Abrines and Sergio Rodriguez will join them next season.
They have an average age of 30 which is slightly on the higher side, but also represents the perfect blend of youth and experience they have in the squad.
Full roster: #4 Pau Gasol, #5 Rudy Fernandez, #6 Sergio Rodriguez, #7 Juan Carlos Navarro, #8 Jose Manuel Caledron, #9 Felipe Reyes, #10 Victor Claver, #14 Guillermo Hernangomez, #21 Alex Abrines, #23 Sergio Llull, #44 Nikola Mirotic, #79 Ricky Rubio
Match Timings
Spain are in Group B with Brazil, Lithuania, Croatia, Argentina and Nigeria. The top 4 squads after the group stage in each group progress to the knockouts. While Croatia are not the force they once were, they will be hopeful of a solid campaign while Argentina and Lithuania will harbour hopes of going all the way, just like Australia.
| Date | Fixture | Time (IST) |
| 8th August | Croatia vs Spain | 3:30 AM |
| 9th August | Spain vs Brazil | 10:45 PM |
| 12th August | Nigeria vs Spain | 3:30 AM |
| 14th August | Spain vs Lithuania | 3:30 AM |
| 16th August | Spain vs Argentina | 3:30 AM |
Spain should be fairly warmed up going into the last couple of games in the group stage against Lithuania and Argentina. The final fixture against Argentina should be an all-out brawl if qualification is still on the line of either side.
Group Analysis
Group B is arguably the tighter group with a number of sides in contention. The hosts Brazil will rely on Raul Neto, Cristiano Felicio and Golden State Warriors’ Leandro Barbosa for their offense but have been dented by the loss of Anderson Varejao and the reduced effectiveness of Nene. Nigeria looked poised to post a good challenge in this year’s Olympics until the late-late withdrawal of Farouq Aminu and Festus Ezeli. Croatia dont’t seem to be the finished product yet, but might still progress to the knockout stage. Argentina should pose a real challenge to the Spaniards, however, their squad is aging and their golden generation can’t carry them on their shoulders anymore. Lithuania are strongly pipped to have a very strong tournment with a cohesive unit that has been together for a while now.
Spain, Argentina, Lithuania and Croatia should progress to the knockouts, however Brazil will make a strong case for themselves and could easily replace one of the aforementioned teams.
Prediction for this year’s Olympics
It would be the perfect story for Spain to go on to win gold in this year’s Olympics after two consecutive silver medals. However, the competition this year will be an intense and they will have to play out of their skins to achieve the same. What makes matters worse is that they are missing Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, who would have added another dimension to their squad. Pau Gasol, one of the greatest ever, will have to inspire Spain towards the gold, but will probably meet a big roadblock in the way to the title.
France and Argentina are strong contenders as well this year. So Spain might do well to go all the way to the finals this year. We predict that they might have to settled for Bronze in Rio.
Guess the Lakers players!
