WEM to host elite 3X3 basketball tournament
Elite level 3x3 basketball, which will be an Olympic discipline in Tokyo in 2020, is coming to West Edmonton Mall in September.
A World Tour Challenger series invitational tournament for men’s teams will be held on a temporary court at the Ice Palace on Sept. 22-23. The formal announcement will be made Friday at 11 a.m. at WEM.
The 18-team tournament is sanctioned by FIBA, basketball’s world governing body.
Six world-ranked professional squads, including Team Saskatoon, and four from Alberta will be among those playing for US$20,000 in prize money, with half of that awarded to the winners.
Team Saskatoon, made up of Michael Linklater, Steve Sir, Jordan Baker and Michael Lieffers, won the first Challenger tournament of 2018. At a shopping mall in Hanam, South Korea, they beat Serbia’s Team Zemun 17-11 in the final on April 15.
Edmonton becomes the 20th Challenger stop scheduled for 2018, with a total of $500,000 in prize money up for grabs on the circuit. There will also be Challenger action in Moscow, Berlin and Sydney, five locations in China, and one each in Mongolia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Lithuania, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Latvia and Romania.
Edmonton has hosted major 3x3 basketball events since 2011, and organizers believe this tournament could be a springboard to an Americas Cup and then a World Championship within the next couple of years as Canada gears up for Olympic action.
Saskatoon will host a World Tour Masters tournament in July. FIBA ranks Masters events a level above the Challenger series, and doubles the total prize money available on the more senior circuit to US$1 million. There are also Masters events in Japan, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Ecuador, Hungary, Mexico, India, China and Malaysia.
Team Saskatoon’s win in South Korea qualified them for the Saskatoon Masters event. They will also represent Canada at the World Cup in the Philippines in June. That 40-team tourney begins the official process of Olympic qualifying for Tokyo.