Who is Vitor Benite? Closer look at Brazil shooting guard's career and more
Brazil will face the United States in a game billed as a David versus Goliath matchup and Vitor Benite will have to be at his best if his team hopes to pull off a historic Olympic upset. Benite has been one of the surprise packages of the tournament and has been instrumental in guiding Brazil out of a difficult group to the knockout stages.
Listed at 6-foot-4 and just over 190 pounds, Benite is a lanky shooting guard with exceptional scoring ability.
After a shaky start versus France, where he shot 2-of-5 from the field, he found his footing against Germany finishing with 17 points on 5-9 shooting. His standout performance of the tournament came against Japan on August 2 when he led all scorers with 19 points and hit 5/7 from beyond the arc.
The 34-year-old is leading all Brazilian scorers with an average of 14.3 points per game. It is an incredible stat as he averages just 19.3 minutes per outing. Benite is shooting at an impressive 56.3 percent from 3-point distance.
Coming into the 2024 Paris Olympics, not a lot of Team USA fans were familiar with Benite's game partly because he never played in the NBA, but the versatile guard is highly rated in South America and Europe.
Vitor Benite was named Novo Basquete Brazil's Most Improved Player and the Sixth Man of the Year in 2011. The Sao Paulo native eventually made the move to Rio de Janeiro to join one of the league's biggest clubs, Flamengo, where he went on to win three consecutive league championships from 2013-2015.
European scouts took notice of the talented guard after his rapid rise in Brazil. A move to the Spanish league with UCAM Murcia was followed by a shift to San Pablo Burgos, where he won the BCL Championship in 2020.
Sharpshooter Vitor Benite was a member of the 2016 Olympics Team in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil has not had success in the Summer Games for six decades now as the last time they won a medal was at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when they finished third.
Vitor Benite was a member of the last Brazil team that qualified for the Olympics in 2016. The nation had high hopes for that side which was filled with NBA-level players including Nenê, Marcelinho Huertas, Cristiano Felicio, and Leandro Barbosa. Unfortunately, they finished with an underwhelming 2-3 record and failed to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Under coach Aleksandar Petrovic, Brazil will hope to break their long wait for a medal in the Olympic basketball. However, it won't be easy as standing between them and a place in the semi-finals are the four-time defending champions, Team USA, led by some of the best players in history.