The only reason a lot of people in the United States now seem to care about 3×3 basketball is because we suddenly suck at it.
Regardless of the reason for the response, the reaction has been noticeable and it isn’t simmering. A lot more people are paying attention to 3×3 hoops specifically because the red, white and blue isn’t doing on the 3×3 courts what it seems destined to do in 5×5 in Paris: strut to a gold medal.
But if that’s what it takes to fix this moving forward, so be it. Team USA can’t stroll up to the 3×3 tournament in Los Angeles in 2028 looking like this on its home court. Major changes have to be made. 3×3 has been an Olympic sport for only two cycles, and we didn’t talk much about it three years ago because, shockingly, the U.S. men didn’t even qualify for the Tokyo Games in 2021. (The women won gold.)
Here in 2024, it’s been brutal. The United States men scraped their way to a 21-19 win over France on Friday, lifting their record to 1-4 and narrowly avoiding outright embarrassment. With pool play more than halfway done, the U.S. sits in seventh place in an eight-team field. It needs to win every remaining game just to get out of pool play. But with star Jimmer Fredette — who, hello, is trying to give it a go as a 35-year-old — still nursing a groin injury, that seems like a long shot at best. With no Jimmer, the trio of Canyon Barry (30), Kareem Maddox (34) and Dylan Travis (31) are left to huff and puff their way against competition that is generally younger, stronger and more experienced in the format.
With all due respect to those guys, who at one point were high-end college players, the single biggest question tied to 3×3 on the U.S. side has been: “Wait, this is our team? Who are these guys?”
That’s the problem and basically the point. The irony is the U.S. had been playing really well in the months-long lead-up to the Olympics. The team beat Latvia and Poland; it lost to Serbia, maybe the best 3×3 group, in a one-possession game.
But nobody cares about or pays attention to the qualifiers. The Olympics is all that matters. The bottom line is the U.S. is 1-4 through five games in Paris and it seems absurd that USA Basketball could roll out a team of players with virtually no appeal or Q score and wind up being dusted.
How’d we get here?
When hoops is played and the United States is involved, winning gold is at once the goal and the floor. Anything less is a massive disappointment, no matter what brand of basketball.
But FIBA, which runs 3×3, wants a competitive sport and isn’t interested in U.S. domination, which is already nearly assured in 5×5. So there are restrictions in place to prevent the United States from steamrolling to gold.
For myriad reasons, we can’t send our very best. Much of this has to do with how FIBA operates the 3×3 circuit and Olympic qualifying. If you’re hoping for the best NBA players who just missed playing alongside LeBron James and Kevin Durant on the men’s national team, that’s not going to happen. Jaylen Brown and Kyrie Irving won’t be on standby. FIBA has a point system that prevents the U.S. from calling up four NBA All-Stars and just ruining the competition.
At least two players on the roster of four (which should be five, because one injury basically torpedos your chances; the roster max needs a tweak immediately) have to accrue FIBA points in 3×3 play over multiple events across multiple months. You get points by playing in events and bonus points by playing well in events.
Basically, half the 3×3 team has to dedicate a good portion of their lives to playing 3×3 across the world. That’s not going to happen with NBA players. FIBA set up 3×3 so that small countries — Mongolia, Latvia, Serbia — would have a chance and could train and cycle in some of their best players to commit to this style for years at a time.
But there is obviously a middle ground between the dream scenario of four borderline NBA All-Stars vs. what we have now.
Even if you put a healthy Jimmer Fredette out there with another committed 3×3 player in his 20s to pair with two NBA-level players, the U.S. would almost certainly be the favorite.
So, how should Team USA Basketball better prioritize? The NBA calendar presents a challenge, but the dangling carrot of getting to participate in the Olympics with the chance to win a gold medal is unquestionably tempting. I’m certain there are really good NBA players who would jump at the opportunity to represent the United States and use this avenue as their only chance to win an Olympic medal.
And I think that will be even more true when the Olympics are in LA in 2028.
Short of that, even if the NBA route didn’t happen, another alluring alternative is pulling the best college players. They could play in one or two 3×3 events after the college season ends but before the Olympics begin and earn inclusion. Imagine if this year we put two projected First Team All-Americans on this team: Alabama’s Mark Sears and Duke’s Cooper Flagg.
I promise you this: The U.S. wouldn’t be 1-5 with Flagg, Sears, Fredette and Barry. Viewership would also spike. That’d be a big win for basketball. Hailey Van Lith, who plays for LSU and is one of college basketball’s most well-known players, is playing in women’s 3×3 in Paris. Why can’t we do it for the men? The NIL opportunities could also be immense.
It’s honestly stunning to see how USA Basketball misplayed this so badly, especially after not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. Even if 3×3 is a “new” sport, and some of its style is off-beat, it’s still a game paying homage to the roots of basketball: pick-up hoop. Natural players thrive in this kind of setting. We can easily send four hoopers into this thing that should be able to beat every other country way more often than not.
Basketball talent in the United States is so ridiculously deep, there should be a line of guys begging to play in this.
There’s no salvaging what’s happening in Paris. It was unfair to expect a quartet of thirty-something former college stars to tap into their glory days. But now we know what the bottom looks like, and it can never happen again. This is like watching Canada stink at hockey; it’s ridiculous to even consider, let alone witness.
We’ve got four years to get it right. Because when the Olympics come to American soil in 2028, the squad USA Basketball puts on the 3×3 court has to be younger, stronger, quicker and, maybe most importantly, highlighted by bona fide stars.
