3-on-3, basketball’s scrappy offshoot, eyes big stage
When 3-on-3 basketball makes its Olympic debut in 2020, spectators will get a brisk 10-minute game with a hands-off approach to fouls. What they won’t see are actual basketball stars.
Despite the newfound promise of Olympic glory, 3on-3 basketball remains a scrappy sport that largely is played by part-timers. The U.S. men’s team, coming off a gold-medal victory in this year’s 3-on-3 World Cup, includes people like Kareem Maddox, who has a day job as a podcast producer at Spotify. One player shoots free throws underhanded.
That ragtag quality is unlikely to change as Team USA aims to qualify for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. The sport’s professional circuit just doesn’t pay well enough to attract big names. It also has to compete with the 5-on-5 version of the game.
But the sport’s advocates hope the Olympic spotlight will help nudge 3-on-3 basketball further into the mainstream and introduce it to a new generation of fans and athletes. The hope is to mimic the success of beach volleyball, which became an Olympic sport in 1996.
“We want to continue the sport’s growth and see where it takes us — maybe even high school or college,” USA Basketball president Jim Tooley said.
The idea of high school teams competing in 3-on-3 basketball still seems unlikely, but the sport has come a long way since its origins on blacktop courts in the 1980s. Ice Cube, the rapper and actor turned businessman, cofounded a 3-on-3 league in 2017 that now has its games broadcast on CBS networks. And it does feature some former NBA stars.
But for athletes looking to qualify for the 3-on-3 national squad, life is less glamorous. In order to make the team, players must hop on the professional circuit of the International Basketball Federation, known as FIBA, and compete in a series of tournaments.
And for many of the athletes, it’s just a side gig.
“A lot of the players have other jobs,” Tooley said. “For NBA guys, they probably have to think like, ‘Is it worth it?’ ”
Most of the tournaments take place in the summer, during the NBA offseason. But it might be hard for NBA veterans to get the hang of it, said Maddox, the Spotify producer who plays on Team USA.
“The game is different,” said Maddox, who played at Princeton. “It’s unpredictable and more physical.”
And the financial reward isn’t enough to entice star athletes. In 2019, FIBA held 11 tournaments, with teams ranking first through fourth earning $88,000 to $330,000 in total.
Only eight teams will qualify for the 3-on-3 Olympic debut next year, one of which will be the home country of Japan. Tooley says that between the men’s and women’s squads, USA basketball will spend well over seven figures trying to get teams qualified for the Olympics.
The smaller squad in 3on-3 basketball may give some countries an opportunity. They might have trouble putting together a 12player roster for traditional basketball, but now they only need four players (three are on the court at any given time, while the fourth serves as a sub).
In regular basketball, U.S. squads have been dominant for decades. The American men’s team captured 15 of the 19 gold medals, while the women won eight of 11.
With 3-on-3, the country has far less of an edge. The U.S. women haven’t won a World Cup since 2014, and on the men’s side, Serbia has won four of the past six.