The 2016 Olympics Might Include 3-On-3 Basketball

Now that the Olympics are over, and USA Basketball has added gold medals for both the women’s and men’s National Teams to their already overflowing trophy case, they have four more years to retool and prepare for Rio in 2016. But according to a recent report in USA Today, it looks like USA Basketball may also need to plan who will make the 2016 Team USA three-on-three basketball teams.

FIBA wants to create a comprehensive ranking system that would determine the best three-on-three teams in the world. FIBA already has a three-on-three world tour and world championship, but (FIBA secretary general Patrick) Baumann welcomed all three-on-three tournaments, such as Gus Macker and Hoop It Up, into the fold as long as those tournaments adhered to FIBA rules, including the registration of players in a database to chart wins and losses. “Like volleyball has beach volleyball, swimming has synchronized swimming, we want three-on-three to be part of it,” Baumann said.

Beach volleyball has been extremely popular in the Olympics since joining the games in 1996, so with basketball’s already popular status, we can only imagine how well received three-on-three basketball will become.

Here’s more from Baumann:

Baumann reasoned that three-on-three would allow more countries to experience the Olympics and help FIBA expand basketball’s global popularity. He said smaller basketball nations regularly send teams to the three-on-three world championship.

“We’ve chosen three-on-three as being one way of bringing that community into the Games,” he said. “For us, this is also really about growing the mass of players on a grass-roots basis. We want them to be part of the family and hopefully have new talents for the game.

FIBA’s influence on Olympic basketball has been well-documented, the ball and rules are all from FIBA, so Olympic three-on-three basketball could become a reality. We broke down yesterday who we think could be on Team USA for the 2016 Olympics, and if some of those players don’t make the cut perhaps they could form the first ever Team USA three-on-three team. Could they also be the first three-on-three Dream Team?

Although this idea is still in the early phases, who would you want on the men’s Team USA three-on-three basketball team?

What do you think?

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