It's a Great Time to Bet on Fun and Against Team USA in Olympic Basketball

The United States Men's National Basketball Team, a.k.a, Team USA, a.k.a., the Dream Team Descendants, or whatever you want to call them, are in big trouble. There are a lot of ways to look at it, but the simplest is that you just shouldn't be betting on them right now because they certainly don't look like a team that is going to win the gold medal.

Most people will have to take my word for it because they weren't watching Team USA lose their third game in five outings on Sunday morning as the game took place at 8 a.m. Eastern Time and was only shown behind the Peacock paywall. If you didn't get up early or delay plans to watch, France beat them, 83-76.

With the loss Team USA dropped from -500 favorites to -280 favorites. While their odds are friendly with each poor performance, eventually the fact that they are a poorly constructed team who had zero time to practice as a full team will end their tournament run.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. The International basketball pool is stronger than ever and other countries actually have teams that practice together. It's probably not great for ratings (gasp!) or new Peacock subscriptions, but internationally, it seems like it would be good for the NBA.

So just forget about Team USA and focus on the other fun options you have right now. Maybe the most fun possibility for gold is Slovenia (+1800) and Luka Doncic. Luka had 48 in his Olympic debut. He's basically as fun as he is with the Mavericks, but without having to rely on Kristaps Porzingis.

Australia has the second-best odds to win gold and they are +800. Spain is +900 and France is +1100. Make your pick now in New Jersey, Indiana or Colorado. Then you don't have to worry about being disappointed in how the American basketballers perform, which will probably be poorly.