The 3×3 Belgian Lions qualified for the Olympic Games in Debrecen on Sunday. But what exactly is 3×3? And who is all involved? We list the most important things for you.
What is 3×3 basketball?
3×3 basketball is a faster variant of 5×5 basketball that is played on a half court and is usually played outdoors. Each team consists of 3 players and 1 reserve player. You can change continuously.
A match lasts 10 minutes or ends when one team has scored 21 points. Each score counts for one point, for a score from outside the two-point line (= three-point line at 5×5) you get two points.
Each attack has a 12 second shot clock. You must score within that time. This ensures that the game is played very quickly.
The ball is slightly smaller than a regular basketball: it is the size of a women’s ball, but the weight of a men’s ball.
After any score or steal, the ball must be “cleared” outside the two-point line. Faults are counted per team. From 7 team fouls you get 2 free throws. From the 10th foul, there are 2 free throws and possession of the ball.
What type of player do you need?
While in 5×5 basketball you often have different types in a team, from small to large, in 3×3 you usually see players who are quite similar in physical form and who can hold their own in both defense and attack.
Players who are all-rounders often come into their own in 3×3 than a player who excels in one aspect of basketball. The more versatile, the better. Physically, a little more is also allowed, so those who can take a beating also have an advantage.
Since when is it an Olympic sport?
3×3 basketball has blown over from the streets and has been on the rise in the last two decades. In 2010, the sport was on the program at the Summer Youth Olympics, the first World Cup took place two years later.
Thanks to the introduction of 3×3 at the European Games in 2015, the sport became known to a wider audience. Two years later, in 2017, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to include 3×3 from the Tokyo Games in the Olympic program.
This decision is in line with the IOC’s view to promote more “urban sports” at the Olympic Games. For example, skateboarding will also make its Olympic debut this summer.
In 2015, Ann Wauters (left) participated with the Belgian 3×3 team at the European Games in Baku.
Who are the 3×3 Belgian Lions?
The large core of the 3×3 Belgian Lions consists of players who are active in the Belgian 1st or 2nd division. Captain Nick Celis did a short interim at first division Mechelen this year and has a past in 1st division at Limburg United and Brussels, among others.
Rafaël Bogaerts (Gembo), Thierry Marien (Willebroek) and Thibaut Vervoort (Melsele) were also part of the team in the past qualifying tournaments in Graz and Debrecen. Jonas Foerts (Mechelen) and Bryan De Valck (Oxaco) were on the reserve list.
Together they also play international 3×3 tournaments with “Team Antwerp”, which means that they have a lot of automatisms as a team. Fitting in a new player for the Games, for example someone from the 5×5 Belgian Lions, is therefore not obvious. The best Belgian basketball player is therefore not necessarily the best Belgian 3×3 player.
What can we expect from them in Tokyo?
Eight countries participate in the Olympic basketball tournament: Japan as the host country, China, Russia and Serbia based on the world ranking, Poland, the Netherlands and Latvia thanks to the Olympic qualifying tournament and finally Belgium, which won the last ticket this weekend.
The 3×3 Belgian Lions did so at a tournament that was only open to “smaller” basketball nations that did not have a basketball team at the previous 2 editions of the Olympic Games.
In Tokyo, Belgium is the lowest ranked team in the world as number 15, but the Belgians have already managed to beat some of those teams in the (recent) past. The 3×3 Lions hope to survive the group stage.
This is what 3×3 basketball at the Olympics looks like:
