Tokyo Olympics: A feast of basketball to watch at the delayed Games

Two forms of basketball will be among the main attractions when the delayed Tokyo Olympics finally gets under way this week.

The 3x3 form of the game - which has seen an expansion in the UK and beyond recently - will take place along side 5v5 basketball, in which the mighty USA teams will be in everyone's sights.

3x3 at the Olympics

Sixteen teams - eight men’s and eight women’s - will be going for gold in Tokyo.

The first 14 teams were determined through the FIBA 3x3 rankings and the Olympic Qualifying Tournament and the final two were sealed last month in Hungary in front of a passionate, packed crowd.

After two days of elite competition at the Universality Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Italy and Belgium earned the final Olympic spots for the women and men respectively.

The 3x3 competition at the Olympic Games will take place from 24-28 July at the Aomi Urban Sports Park. 

Men’s Qualifiers

Serbia 
Russian Olympic Committee 
China
Japan 
Poland 
Netherlands 
Latvia 
Belgium 

Women’s Qualifiers

Russian Olympic Committee
China 
Mongolia 
Romania
France 
United States 
Japan 
Italy 

The complete Olympic 3x3 Basketball Tournament schedule is found here.

Team England

Team England will take part in the inaugural 3x3 event at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games next year.

5v5 at the Olympics

The men's 5v5 basketball event will take place from July 25 to August 7, and the women's from July 26 to August 8.

With a new format that has 12 teams drawn into three groups in each tournament, the top two national teams from each pool, and the two best third-placed teams, will advance to the quarter-finals.

Men’s Qualifiers

USA
Spain
Argentina
France
Australia
Iran
Nigeria
Japan
Slovenia
Czech Republic
Germany
Italy

Women’s Qualifiers

Korea
Serbia
Canada
Spain
Nigeria
Japan
France
USA
Australia
Puerto Rico
China
Belgium

The Olympic Basketball Tournament schedule is found here

Kevin Durant leads a star-studded USA Men's team. Image: NBA

How to watch the Olympics

BBC are set to screen over 350 hours of uninterrupted coverage live and free-to-air.

BBC Red Button, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website will be operation to show full coverage of many events throughout the duration of the Games.

Every moment of the Games will also be shown on Eurosport as well as online streaming platforms Eurosport Player and discovery+.

The Radio Times Olympics UK TV schedule

You can check out Radio Times magazine's Olympics on TV today guide.

It will be updated it every day with the highlighted events, timings, TV channels and exclusive expert analysis from some of the biggest names in world sport over the coming weeks.