Top Contenders

The Spain team includes several players that currently play, will play, or have played in the NBA, including Pau Gasol (left) from the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers, Jose Calderon (Toronto Raptors), and Rudy Fernandez (Portland Trail Blazers) to name a few. The team won the World Championships in 2006 where Gasol stepped up his game and starred before getting injured in the WC finals. Because of the strong inside and out ability of the team, as well as its ability to play at an athletic pace, Spain is a team to watch out for. In particular, look out for Ricky Rubio, a young phenomonal point guard for the team. Go to YouTube and type in his name to see what I mean.

Manu Ginobili (left) is a hard man to stop on any level, but if he steps up his game this year the way he did in 2004, leading his team to the gold, watch out. However, the defending champions are obviously more than one player as the team boasts current NBA players such as Luis Scola (Houston Rockets) and Andres Nocioni (Chicago Bulls) to go along with Ginobili who helped the San Antonio Spurs win a few NBA titles. The gold medal goes through Argentina, so they have to be considered one of the top threats in the tournament.

They're the host country that boasts one of the top centers on the planet in Yao Ming (left)! Yi Jianlin (New Jersey Nets) and ZhiZhi Wang will look to team up with Yao to cause fits for other teams down low in the box. If their perimeter players can match the production of the post players, China could pull out some important wins to get them far in the tournament.

Any team with the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki (left) on it is a team to watch out for. Germany was the last country to qualify for the Olympics and will run most of its offense through Nowitzki. However, the Los Angeles Clippers' Chris Kaman will get his fair share of production down low in the paint. The team has a lot of experience and will be a tough matchup throughout this tournament.