The rosters are set, the athletes have arrived and the long wait is almost over: On Saturday, the men's Olympic basketball competition officially gets underway with the first four games of group play. 

It's not hyperbole to say that this is the most talented field ever, with more than half of the player pool boasting NBA experience — easily surpassing the previous record from the Tokyo Games. So it's no surprise that Day 1 will get things off to a flying start, with big names and compelling storylines all over the place. Here's everything you need to look out for.

Welcome to the party, Wemby

On the heels of a spectacular first season with the San Antonio Spurs that saw him win unanimous NBA Rookie of the Year honors (and produce a new face-melting highlight seemingly every week), it feels like it won't be long before Victor Wembanyama announces himself as one of — if not the — best basketball players on planet Earth. Might the 7-foot-4 phenom kickstart that ascension on home soil? We'll start to find out on Saturday, when Wemby and France open Group A play against Brazil at 11:15 a.m. ET.

The next couple of weeks will give Wembanyama the chance to shake up the basketball landscape, with potential matchups looming against Western Conference rivals and perennial MVP candidates like Nikola Jokic (Serbia) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada). But they also offer something even bigger: Basketball continues to grow in popularity in France, and a medal run could help it take off even more — and put Wemby into the sort of celebrity stratosphere usually reserved for soccer stars like Kylian Mbappé. 

With other established NBA names like Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum and Evan Fournier on the roster, France enters the Paris Games with its sights set on a medal, and a win over Brazil would go a long way toward seeing them through to the knockout rounds.

Of course, Wemby is far from the only NBA superstar set to take the court. Saturday's main event features two of the top four players in this year's NBA MVP voting, as Giannis Antetokounmpo leads Greece against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a loaded Canada team at 3:00 p.m. ET. 

Have Giannis Antetokounmpo or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played in the Olympics before?

Believe it or not, this will be each player's first game on the Olympic stage. Greece fell short of qualifying for the Tokyo Games, and if you want to know how much finally reaching the Olympics means to Giannis, just look at how he reacted after his team punched its ticket earlier this month:

Antetokounmpo had to do things the hard way, carrying Greece through a qualifying tournament that included a semifinal win over Luka Doncic and Slovenia. Greece won't boast the sort of NBA depth that a lot of other contenders will, but we know how broad Giannis' shoulders can be.

The Canadians haven't appeared on the Olympic stage since Sydney in 2000, but they enter Paris squarely in the medal hunt thanks to a star-studded core featuring SGA, Jamal Murray, Dillon Brooks, RJ Barrett and other notable NBA names. They knocked off the U.S. to win bronze at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, and they'll have their sights set even higher this time around. But getting out of this group of death — Group A features not only Canada and Greece but also a perennially thorny Spain side — will be no small task.

How many NBA players are on Team Greece?

Remarkably, Giannis is the only current NBA player on Team Greece. Granted, there are players with past experience in the league — notably former lottery pick Georgios Papagiannis and former Rockets/Nuggets wing Kostas Papanikolaou. But most of the rest of the roster plays domestically, primarily for major Athens clubs Olympiacos and Panathinaikos.

How many NBA players are on Team Canada?

For Canada, meanwhile, this is the culmination of a golden generation. A whopping 10 of 12 players on the Canadian roster play in the NBA: In addition to Gilgeous-Alexander, Murray, Brooks and Barrett, Team Canada also boasts names like Lu Dort, Kelly Olynyk, Andrew Nembhard and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. 

What is the head-to-head record between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Antetokounmpo?

So far, the NBA matchups between these two superstars have been surprisingly one-sided. They've never met in the playoffs, but in eight regular-season meetings thus far, Giannis leads 7-1. The two players faced off just once in the 2023-24 season, with Antetokounmpo dropping 30 and 19 in a decisive 118-93 win for the Bucks over the Thunder back in March.

Australia and Spain will tip things off with the first game of the tournament at 5:00 a.m. ET. Spain is always a tough out on this stage, while Australia snagged a bronze medal in Tokyo and has looked great in the lead-up to Paris; Josh Giddey has emerged as a point-forward supreme for the Dunkaroos, and Patty Mills — now in his fifth Games — remains as dangerous a scorer as ever. Given how stiff the competition is in Group A, the loser of this game will have quite the hole to dig out of.

Germany and Japan will play the other game in Group B at 7:30 a.m. ET. Germany doesn't boast the sort of A-list star as other medal contenders, but last year's World Cup winner has plenty of NBA talent and the perfect mix of size, shooting and a lead guard in Dennis Schroder.