Paris 2024 Olympics: How Team USA can fix its 3×3 basketball problem in time for Games on home soil

The only reason most people in the United States seem to care about 3×3 basketball is because we suddenly absorb.

Regardless of the reason for the reaction, the reaction is visible and does not cry. Many people pay attention to 3×3 hoops because the red, white and blue do not work on the 3×3 courts which seems to be intended to do 5×5 in Paris: to get the gold medal.

But if that’s what it takes to fix this further, so be it. Team USA can’t advance to the 3×3 tournament in Los Angeles in 2028 this is what it looks like on its home court. Big changes have to be made. 3×3 has always been an Olympic sport on two bikes, and we haven’t talked about it much in the last three years because, ironically, the US men didn’t qualify for the Tokyo Games in 2021. (The women won the gold.)

Here in 2024, it has been brutal. The United States men cruised to a 21-19 victory over France on Friday, improving their record to 1-4 and avoiding a complete embarrassment. With pool play complete, the US sits in seventh place in the eight-team field. It needs to win every remaining game just to get out of the pool. But with star Jimmer Fredette — whey, hey, he’s trying to pass it off like a 35-year-old — is nursing a groin injury, which looks like a long shot. Without Jimmer, the trio of Canyon Barry (30), Kareem Maddox (34) and Dylan Travis (31) are left scrambling and struggling against competition that is generally younger, stronger and more experienced. more in character.

With all due respect to those guys, who were once top college players, the single biggest question tied to 3×3 on the US side was: “Wait, team is this ours? Who are these?”

I see the problem and that’s really the point. Surprisingly, the US is still playing well in the long months leading up to the Olympics. The team beat Latvia and Poland; lost to Serbia, probably the best 3×3 team, in a match of one possession.

But no one cares or pays attention to the worthy. The Olympics are all that matter. The bottom line is that the US is 1-4 through five games in Paris and it seems inconceivable that USA Basketball could field a roster with no appeal or Q points and end up in the dust.

How did we get here?

When hoops is played and the United States is involved, winning the gold is immediately the goal and the floor. Anything less is a big disappointment, no matter what kind of basketball.

But FIBA, which runs 3×3, wants a competitive game and is not interested in the US regime, which is almost guaranteed at 5×5. So there are restrictions put in place to prevent the United States from going from steam to gold.

For many reasons, we cannot send our best. Much of this has to do with the way FIBA ​​works in the 3×3 circuit and Olympic qualification. If you’re hoping for the best NBA players who just missed playing with LeBron James and Kevin Durant on the men’s national team, that’s not going to happen. Jaylen Brown and Kyrie Irving can’t wait. FIBA has a points system that prevents the US from calling up four NBA All-Star players and just spoiling the competition.

At least two players in the list of four (which should be five, because one injury destroys your chances; a large number needs to be changed immediately) must collect FIBA ​​points in a 3×3 game at many events throughout many months. You get points for playing in events and bonus points for playing well in events.

In fact, half of the 3×3 team has to give a good part of their life to play 3×3 around the world. That can’t happen with NBA players. FIBA created 3×3 so that the smaller countries – Mongolia, Latvia, Serbia – have the opportunity and can train and ride their best players to commit to this style for many years.

But there’s clearly a middle ground between the dream scenario of four borderline NBA All-Stars versus what we have right now.

Even if you put a healthy Jimmer Fredette and another determined 3×3 player in his 20s against two NBA-caliber players, the US will be the favorite.

So, how should Team USA Basketball prioritize? The NBA calendar presents a challenge, but the dangling carrot of participating in the Olympics with a chance to win a gold medal is undeniably enticing. I’m sure there are some great NBA players who would jump at the chance to represent the United States and use this as their one chance to win an Olympic medal.

And I think that will be even more true when the Olympics are in LA in 2028.

In short, even if the NBA path did not happen, another attractive option it draws the best college players. They could play in one or two 3×3 events after the college season ended but before the Olympics started and were included. Imagine if this year we could put a first team all-American on this team: Alabama’s Mark Sears and Duke’s Cooper Flagg.

I promise you this: the US can’t be 1-5 with Flagg, Sears, Fredette and Barry. Viewers would also increase. That would be a huge win for basketball. Hailey Van Lith, who plays at LSU and is one of college basketball’s most popular players, plays in the women’s 3×3 tournament in Paris. Why can’t we do it for men? The chances of NIL can also be very high.

It’s amazing to see how USA Basketball has done this so poorly, especially after not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. Even though 3×3 is a “new” game, and one of its forms is less common, it is still a game that honors the roots of basketball: the pick-up hoop. Natural players thrive in these types of situations. We can easily send four hoopers to this thing that should be able to hit every country more than that.

The basketball talent in the United States is ridiculously deep, there must be a line of guys asking to play in this.

There is no saving what is happening in Paris. It was unfair to expect a group of thirty-two former stars to enter their glory days. But now we know what the bottom looks like, and it will never happen again. This is like watching Canada smell hockey; it’s crazy to think, let alone prove.

We have four years to fix it. Because when the Olympics come to America in 2028, USA Basketball’s 3×3 team must be young, strong, fast and, perhaps most importantly, star-studded. .