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The Tokyo Olympics were filled to the brim with great basketball. The United States team won gold in both men’s and women’s competitions, but there were excellent performances from Spain, France (the team the men beat in the game for the gold medal), Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Australia and Japan (the women’s team beaten in the gold medal match).
With so much talent, it’s hard to pick a handful of stars, but that’s exactly what FIBA, the organizer of international basketball competitions, has done.
With Team USA winning two gold medals, the MVPs couldn’t be elsewhere. FIBA named Kevin Durant their Men’s MVP for his performance in Tokyo. He was the team leader, a two-time Olympic veteran, and his exploits certainly played a big part in helping the US men’s team to gold.
On the women’s side, 2018 WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart took top honors as the team claimed their seventh straight gold medal.
The five stars of FIBA
FIBA also named its five stars for the women’s and men’s teams, and there were plenty of talents to choose from. On the women’s side, Stewart and A’ja Wilson were originally from the WNBA, but there were representatives from teams and leagues from all over the world. Breakout star Rui Machida plays for the Japan national team. Belgian Emma Meesseman, MVP of the 2019 WNBA Finals, now plays in Russia after a seven-year career with the Washington Mystics. Sandrine Gruda from France plays in Italy after spending several years in the WNBA.
FIBA’s five stars for men are all NBA players, but only one is from the United States. The other four players each came from a different country: Spain (Ricky Rubio), Australia (Patty Mills), Slovenia (Luka Doncic) and France (Rudy Gobert).
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