Kristaps Gotfrīds, the 3×3 basketball project coordinator of the Latvian Basketball Association (LBS), and Raimonds Feldmanis, the coach of the Latvian 3×3 basketball team, planned that the Olympic quartet would train together with the new generation (Francis Gustavs Lācis, Zigmārs Raimo, Kārlis Apsītis) in the fall. When Lasmanis and Miezis received offers from China, there was hope that at least Čavars and Krūmiņš would join the new “schools”, but later the two most experienced 3×3 basketball players could not resist the temptation of China. The last hope was for Artūras Strēlnieks and Artūras Ausēi – they could not only provide the young people with quality sparring, but also the opportunity to get to the “Challenger” tournaments and accumulate rating points.
But at the moment it is no longer relevant – together with Strēlnieka, Ausēi, one Chinese and one Serbian, the “Riga 3×3” team will consist of Čavars and Krūmiņš, whose return to the homeland was played by the sportsmen’s management as an ode to patriotism, sparing the audience the presentation of the real circumstances. However, four players from last season’s squad avoid losing rating points.
Although it was packaged as a new challenge for Olympic champions to join the international teams, in reality it is simply a great opportunity to earn money. The idea of the ambitious superpower is completely banal – by adding five or six of its teams with the world’s best street basketball players, the Chinese playing in these units will be able to accumulate points for the ranking of nations so that China automatically qualifies for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
However, representatives of other countries did not like such planning.
