Wherever you go in this country and elsewhere, a basketball hoop is found everywhere outside of gyms and arenas: they're stuck to the back of farmhouses and the top of garages, in every public and private parks, and dedicated courts next to parking lots in city streets. And it's with the inspiration of the ladder in mind that, this year, has seen a second form of America's own game being brought into the big time: a form of basketball that has its roots in the streets, and where millions of youngsters play this game after school and on warm days during their summer off from school.
Three-on-three basketball -- or officially classified at 3X3 -- is one of several new sports to make its debut at the Tokyo Olympics, along with surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and the freestyle variation of BMX. And while many of us were waking this morning, today saw its crowning moment on sports' greatest stage, as the first Olympic gold medalists were crowned. But to better understand what this new aspect of a game we love, it's worth taking a deep dive into its journey to this moment.
In the past several decades, various sports have introduced new variations of their original games in hopes of bringing in a new & younger audience: indoor football brought a rite of fall into shortened 50-yard Astroturf fields in basketball & hockey arenas during the spring & summer. Overseas, the usually staid sport of cricket introduced shorter forms outside its grueling test-match format in one-day matches, Twenty20 games and the newly launched Hundred format in England. And a PGA European Tour event down in Perth, Australia uses 6-hole matches in lieu of an 18-hole final round to determine its winner.
This game is one of many other variations of the traditional 5-on-5 we all know, from wheelchair basketball which is a key sport of the Paralympic program, Netball that's played mostly in Australia & New Zealand, H.O.R.S.E. and the ones we play in the arcade. 3X3 has its roots in streetball, which is played casually outdoors, features more of the players' individual skills and is as much a part of the New York City culture as the Knicks and Nets thanks to the famed street court in Harlem's Rucker Park and other annual tournaments and tours, eventually becoming the world's top urban team sport.
FIBA first tested the potential of 3x3 back in 2007 at lower levels, and then adopted it regularly after it joined the Youth Olympic Games program in 2010 in Singapore. It has been holding a 3X3 world tour over the past several years in the hope that it would make its way into the regular Olympic program, which it did this year. The format's biggest push into the U.S. sports scene has been the BIG3 league, founded by Ice Cube and currently into its fourth season featuring rosters full of former NBA players. And like its NBA counterpart, these games take on a whole city vibe, music and all.
RULES
Like those other variations of basketball, 3x3 & BIG3 deviate a bit from the usual rules of 5-on-5, which in international play is played under the auspices of the International Basketball Federation.
● The first major difference is that 3x3 games are always played on a half-court -- 49 ft by 36 ft, slightly smaller than the NBA's half-court.
● While there's three players at any one time, each team has four players with one substitute, which can be used at any time at any dead ball.
● The ball itself is a size 6 - the same size as an intermediate ball, slightly smaller than the NBA's and weighing just as much.
● Like in both American & global football, a coin toss determines who gets possession to start a game - and that decision is left in the hands of the one who wins it or whether they start on defense.
● Instead of a traditional opening jump, games begin with the defensive exchanging the ball with the offense behind the arc, and restarts begin in this same manner after a dead ball.
● For every possession, teams must take the ball past the arc after gaining it under the basket... and if there is a jump ball the defensive team gains possession.
● Games in 3x3 lasts only one period of ten minutes - compared to 48 in an NBA game, 40 at both the international level & in NCAA play and two halves in BIG3 when a team reaches 25 points.
● There is only a 12-second shot clock in contrast to 24 at the NBA/FIBA level, 35 in college and 14 in BIG3... it's basically just give and go.
● Teams only get 1 timeout per game, though there's two mandatories at the first dead ball at the 7 and 4 min marks.
● Scoring is different: 1 point for every basket scored in a 3x3 game, except from behind the arc when 2 points - and the arc is at the FIBA distance of just over 22 feet, closer than the NBA.
● In free throws, only one shot is given for a shooting foul, two for behind the arc scenarios.
● The magic number every 3x3 team aspires to reach is 21 to win a game, compared to 50 in BIG3 or the Elam Ending used in the TBT tournament and NBA All-Star Game to win with a similar total.
● If a 3x3 game is tied after 10 mins, the first team to score two points wins in an untimed overtime -- it's game over if one team hits from behind the arc. And the Trent Tucker rule is also in effect.
● Players can't foul out, but the 6-foul limit still exists with the double bonus starting at the 7th, and teams also gaining possession at the 10th. The ladder is also the case for technical and unsportsmanlike (flagrant) fouls, for which the only a player can be disqualified if he commits two of the ladder.
With this shorter form of basketball now being part of the game's summer activities in this country in between NBA seasons thanks to BIG3, this week's debut of 3x3 at the Tokyo Olympics marked its breakout moment in front of the broader global audience. When it saw its prospects a decade & a half ago, FIBA saw this form of the sport as a new way to connect the younger audience to how unique and exciting this half-court variation can be. And with the Americans winning that first gold medal for the women and Latvia's top-scorer Kārlis Lasmanis draining the winning 2-ball for his country and everything that took place in Tokyo, there's no reason not to think that basketball's future has arrived.
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
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