3-on-3 eyed in 2020 Olympics

SINGAPORE – With the 3-on-3 basketball turning out to be a huge success in the first Youth Olympic Games here, plans are already afoot to firm up the format with the Olympics as a long-term goal.

No less than International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has been impressed with the three-a-side game hailed as a success by players, coaches, officials and spectators alike.

“It’s a very exciting event,” said Rogge. “I like the format very much, you know it’s an extrapolation of how basketball is played in the inner cities and backyards.”

He added: “The rules are clear, there is suspense and the 33-point rule is a very good one because it brings it to a climax and obviously the players love it.”

FIBA president Bob Elphinston also said the world cage body is now studying how to further expand the sport and give it a mainstream appeal.

“We’re looking to see how we can develop FIBA 33 on a world basis,” Elphinston said.

While Elphinston believes 2020 would be the earliest possible Olympic Games to include 3-on-3 in the calendar, the opportunities for the new format are still endless.

“The limits are only really your imagination and what people see as a benefit.

But we think it’s exciting,” said Elphinston.

The 3-on-3 has also won the backing of London 2012 Olympic Games chief and Sebastian Coe and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games head Carlos Guzman, who both suggested the IOC look into adopting the format in future Olympics.

“We want to use FIBA to encourage more young boys and girls to play the game, to get started in basketball. We also want to create FIB A 33 as a separate discipline, similar to what we see in the Olympic Games with volleyball and beach volleyball,” he said.

But while Rogge has given the thumbs-up sign to 3-on-3, he stressed that it is not as easy as simply adding FIBA 33 to the Olympic calendar since there is a limited number of athletes allowed to compete in the quadrennial games.

“3-on-3 is definitely an exciting format but there is one issue at the Olympic Games and that is we have a limited number of athletes,” Rogge said.

“If we let the Olympics grow without limit then they will be too costly and too difficult to organize and that will create problems,” he added.

But Rogge maintained that the FIBA 33 will come into the Olympic program, only the problem is the limited number of athletes in each Olympic Games.

Serbia ripped Croatia, 22-9, to claim the first 3-on-3 YOG gold while Greece beat the United States, 34-25, for third followed by Lithuania, Israel, Argentina and Spain and the Philippines finishing ninth.