NBA backs streetball craze

There is no doubt that soccer is the world’s most popular sport but since basketball elevated the 3x3 game beyond the streets to a global stage, the gap between the two sports seems to be narrowing if only by a bit. Hoop fanatics aren’t entertaining the illusion that someday soon, basketball will be as popular as soccer. The dream, however, is to make it happen and the key is to spread the gospel of basketball to the street level, down to the grassroots where kids learn the game early and conjure visions of becoming stars like LeBron, Kobe, D-Rose and KD.

The NBA is doing its part in globalizing the game. Preseason and regular season games are now being played outside of North America. This October, the first NBA preseason game will be held in the country with the Houston Rockets and Indiana Pacers squaring off at the MOA Arena – a breakthrough in the history of Philippine basketball. And for the third straight year, the NBA is embellishing a widespread 3x3 tournament with actual league accouterments like the presence of two active players, six Indiana Pacemates and the Memphis Grizzlies’ mascot Grizz starting today until Sunday.

FIBA has gotten into the act, too. And at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics with the age range of 14 to 18, basketball was played strictly on a 3x3 basis for boys and girls. The Philippines, represented by Cris Tolomia, Bobby Ray Parks, Jeron Teng and Michael Pate, took ninth place out of 20 entries. The Filipinos lost their first three matches in cliffhangers to the Virgin Islands, 34-28, Spain, 27-25, and Croatia, 22-19, then swept South Africa, 26-12, Central African Republic, 22-13, Iran, 28-19 and Puerto Rico, 34-23.

FIBA plans to introduce a 3x3 event at the Olympics and it could happen as early as the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. Instead of expanding the field of competition from 12 to 16 or 24 teams for men and women, FIBA is seriously considering to stage a 3x3 event with limited participation. If the idea is to build a foundation of streetballers later to take the game to a higher level, the Olympic way could be the right path to motivate the kids.

In the NBA 3x event presented by Sprite, the male division is broken down into U-13 (10-12 years old), U-16 (13-15), U-18 (16-17) and Open (18 and over) and the female is composed of U-16 (13-15), U-18 (16-17) and Open (18 and over). Playing venues are two basketball half-courts at the SM MOA Music Hall and seven at the PICC.

A total of 192 teams will participate in the competition. Additionally, eight celebrity teams will battle each other for bragging rights. The celebrity teams are JagerBomb (Rovilson Fernandez, Mong Alcaraz, Robin Da Roza, Niño Alejandro), Team Alcaraz (Marco Alcaraz, Ervic Vijandre, Jose Sarasola), Bone Collector (Bobby Yan, Geron Lontoc, Luis Montalban, Rence Sy), Run and Gun (Mark Zembrano, Jace Flores, J. C. Tioseco, Rio de la Cruz), Team Edward (Dominic Uy, Jason Webb, Richard del Rosario, Mico Halili), ABS-CBN Sports (T. J. Manotoc, Marco Benitez, Anton Roxas, Charles Tiu), Team BNO (Tony Toni, Sam YG, Slick Rick) and Hoopjunkies (Jinno Rufino, Fabio Ide, Alex Compton). The doors aren’t closed to former PBA cagers as Del Rosario, Webb and Compton will attest. Running icon Rio de la Cruz’ participation will surely be a crowd drawer.

The men’s open category has 64 teams including Blackwater Sports, AMA University and the UFL while the women’s open group, eight including the FEU Lady Tams and the Lady Blazers.

Aside from the 3x3 games, organizers are staging a Slam Dunk Contest, a basketball clinic, a 3-Point Shootout, Skills Challenge, an autograph session, live performances and an NBA Cares activity. Houston’s James Harden and New Orleans’ Eric Gordon are making themselves available for interaction throughout the event.

Harden, 23, is in his second Manila visit. He was here during the two-game All-Star series two years ago with Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Chris Paul and a slew of others. Harden will be back with the Rockets for the preseason game against the Pacers in October. What makes Harden a fan favorite is his incredible versatility as a 6-5 shooting guard. His bushy beard is a trademark. Once the NBA’s Sixth Man awardee, Harden moved to Houston from Oklahoma last season and wound up the league’s fifth leading scorer with a hefty 25.9 average.  At the London Olympics last year, Harden hit at a 5.5 clip with the gold medal US squad.

Gordon, 24, was the seventh overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft out of Indiana University. He played on the US team that captured the gold medal at the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey. This past season, Gordon averaged 16.98 points with the New Orleans Hornets, now known as the Pelicans.

The six Indiana Pacemates are eye-catching, brains-and-beauty charmers. Jordan is close to earning an Accounting degree at Ball State University and was a choreographer and instructor for three years at a dance studio. Arbara has a psychology degree from Indiana University at Bloomington and a master’s degree in mental health counseling from the University of Indianapolis. She has performed as a cheerdancer for the Indianapolis Colts at the Super Bowl. Megan is a public relations major and plans to someday work in a children’s hospital. She was once a second grade cadet teacher in high school.

Desiree is a certified fitness instructor who like Arbara, was with the Colts cheerdance squad that performed at the Super Bowl.  Erika used to be with the Cleveland Cavaliers and intends to pursue a law degree specializing in representing sports and entertainment celebrities.  Walesska was with the WNBA Indiana Fever Inferno Hip-Hop squad for two seasons like Jordan and hopes the Pacers soon duplicate the Fever’s championship run in 2012.

The Pacemates will execute their routine during the 3x3 competitions. The finals will be held on Sunday at the SM MOA Music Hall.