Doncic and Antetokounmpo will be looking to book their places at the Paris Olympics in the final qualifying tournament. The pair, drawn in Group C in the Greek capital Athens, have taken very different paths to this winner-takes-all clash.

In Riga, hosts Latvia finished top of a triple-ties group (1-1), beating Georgia 55-83 and losing to the Philippines 80-80, and will meet Cameroon, who eliminated Montenegro after beating Brazil 77-74 with 22 points, six rebounds and six assists from naturalised American Jeremiah Hill. Brazil were first and will meet the Philippines, whose star player is American-born Justin Brownlee (26 points against Latvia and 28 against Georgia).

In Valencia, Spain won its two games against Lebanon (59-104) and Angola (89-81) to set up a semi-final clash with Finland. The Bahamas, with NBA stars such as Deandre Ayton of the Portland Trail Blazers and 18-year-old V.J. Edgecombe, beat Finland (85-96) and Poland (90-81) to finish top of their mini-group and will meet Lebanon for a place in the final.

Finally, hosts Puerto Rico beat Italy 80-69 behind 29 points from New York-born José Alvarado (NBA's New Orleans Pelicans) to go 2-0 up and set up a semi-final with Mexico. The other final will pit favourites Lithuania, who beat Mexico 84-96 and Côte d'Ivoire 81-92 with Domantas Sabonis at his best, against Mexico, whose key players will be American-born Stoll and Ibarra.

Back in Piraeus, Greece has had a placid group stage, with victories of more than 20 points against Egypt and the Dominican Republic and a choral attack -featuring Euroleague superstars such as Thomas Walkup, Nick Calathes or Kostas Papanikolaou-. It is fair to say that Spanoulis’ pupils, have also been pushed by the 'home' advantage enjoyed by the Greeks.

On the other side of the coin, to get here, the Slovenian team has had to sweat a lot more, experiencing moments of tension at the beginning, due to being knocked out by Croatia in their debut.

Later, a better version of Doncic, registering a triple-double with 36 points, appeared against New Zealand, where Sekulic's boys needed to win by 9 points to qualify. The final score was 78-104 for the Slovenians, fulfilling his duty.

Doncic, in particular, is coming off two sensational games, easily dominating the matches and highlighting the reason why he is in the Olympus of world basketball. In the opening stumble against Croatia, another strong team from the old continent, many pointed out on social media that he was too alone, and that took its toll on the Central European team.

However, two triple-doubles, taking Slovenia on his back, after losing the NBA finals just two weeks ago and having played through injuries in the last months of competition, are worthy of total admiration, and evidently, they have had their reward: dreaming of Paris 2024 despite facing one of the best teams in the FIBA, like the Greek one.

Curiously, Greek basketball legend, Vassilis Spanoulis, coach of Greece, did not need the presence of his star to close the group stage against Egypt. He let Giannis, who is also coming off a few months of injury, rest after crushing the Dominican Republic with 32 points. He was, in this way, fresh for his particular war against Sekulic's gang.

Now, the eyes of all the basketball fans are fixed on one specific date, more precisely, tomorrow, Saturday, 6 July at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus, home of the historic European team, Olympiakos. The perfect setting for a duel of titans that is already a classic in the NBA with Luka's Mavericks and Giannis' Bucks.