Basketball 2.0: 3x3’s Rise from the Streets to the Olympics

By Tristan Lavalette

Basketball 2.0 takes a riveting and inspirational look inside the rise of 3x3 basketball, which made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, just a decade after launching as the official truncated version of arguably the world's second most popular sport. For generations, three-on-three was a popular form of pickup basketball but seen as a novelty until the governing body, FIBA, hatched an ambitious plan to broaden the sport's worldwide footprint and extend its fan base through a distinctive brand. But to achieve legitimacy, 3x3 needed to accomplish the improbable and go from the streets to the Olympics. Despite skepticism, FIBA created a professional tour and international competitions before its dream was realized when 3x3 became an Olympic sport for the Tokyo Games. FIBA is betting big on its new game, but even after 3x3's memorable Olympic debut, the question remains: will it truly succeed? Basketball 2.0 is the first in-depth exploration of this fascinating and quirky new global game.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Aug 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781801502863

Book preview

Prologue

28 July 2021: Latvia vs Russian Olympic Committee; men’s Olympic gold medal game

WITH THE men’s Olympic gold medal game in the balance, in a see‑saw of a contest typical of 3x3’s unpredictability, Latvia talisman Kārlis Lasmanis wiped away sweat on his brow amid a muggy Wednesday night as the clock hit 10.45pm.

But, more importantly, the game clock showed just 32.5 seconds left amid a stoppage, with officials determining which team touched the ball before it went out of bounds.

Even though it is a purposely souped‑up version of basketball, like it had consumed ten Red Bulls, 3x3 still could do little about officials watching endless replays to determine disputed late‑game calls.

As the delay ensued, Lasmanis paused, took a gulp and looked to the heavens. He immediately blinked, feeling almost temporarily blinded by the full force of the bright lights hovering ominously above the half court at the Aomi Urban Sports Park in the temporary venue for 3x3 basketball in the waterfront Aomi district of Tokyo.

Lasmanis, of course, had other more pressing things weighing on his mind, but the symbolism was nonetheless striking with the spotlight on 3x3 – the popular three‑on‑three pickup game of basketball formalised and opportunistically transformed into an Olympic discipline within a decade by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport’s governing body.

The often mocked truncated 21‑point game, derided as a safe haven for misfits unworthy of basketball, neared the end of its five days in the international limelight – 14 years since the late FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann started his near obsession with perfecting a professional version of streetball, marketed as ‘3‑ex‑3’.

In its Olympic debut, as the second basketball discipline, 3x3 naturally enjoyed being a novelty and attracted major coverage from media heavyweights the New York Times, Washington Post and The Guardian, among others.

French president Emmanuel Macron and United States first lady Jill Biden were some of the notable dignitaries who watched the ‘ten‑minute’ sprint played on a half court with a solitary basketball hoop marked by a scoring system consisting of one‑ and two‑pointers. It’s as if that classic 1980s Nintendo game Hoops sprung to reality.

The men’s and women’s respective eight‑team competitions had been typically freewheeling and breathless, designed to erode basketball’s dreary aspects.

There was one major hitch, which was uncontrollable, but left FIBA 3x3 officials feeling rather hollow in the belief that the product was going to be slightly diminished in its Olympic unveiling.

The fan‑less Tokyo Games, due to the Covid‑19 pandemic, undoubtedly stripped 3x3 – branded as an ‘urban sport’ aimed at youth – of its electric and unparalleled atmosphere, where the spectacle is akin to if a half court and hoop was transplanted to the middle of a heaving nightclub. With a dedicated hype man and MC, who plays a rotating track of classic hip hop tunes mixed with latest pop hits, there’s little subtlety in FIBA 3x3’s mimicking of American cultural trappings but everyone seems to play along and enjoy themselves. It is part sports event, part festival. But 100 per cent entertainment.

With 32.5 seconds left in the men’s gold medal game between Latvia and Russian Olympic Committee, amid a stoppage with hot favourites Latvia leading 19‑18, Knowa Lazarus, the indefatigable hype man, stared into the stands, mostly empty apart from a smattering of officials and family members of the players.

It was a far cry from the venue’s capacity of 7,100 fans, who were envisioned to be typically rowdy and whipped into a frenzy by Lazarus to light a fuse under 3x3 and help it emerge from obscurity.

While Lazarus ploughed ahead and tested his vocal cords to the limit, Lasmanis – the blond‑haired poster boy dubbed ‘Batman’ by FIBA 3x3’s marketers – decided it was time to play the kind of hero ball discouraged during his inglorious fleeting basketball career mired in lower professional leagues in Latvia and Germany.

He calmly relayed his intentions to sidekick Nauris Miezis – unsurprisingly coined ‘Robin’ and who had missed a two‑ pointer just seconds earlier that would have won the gold medal – as Latvia’s players quickly agreed to unleash a well‑ worn set play to allow Lasmanis to get to his sweet spot on the left side behind the arc.

With ironman Edgars Krūmiņš, a hefty frame suggesting he could double up at Olympic wrestling, reduced to the sidelines after a serious ankle injury, Latvia played the final minutes without a substitute player. Lasmanis, Miezis and Agnis Čavars, another brute who relishes body‑slamming opponents belying his day job as an IT programmer, were tiring and knew they needed to seal the deal on this play.

Krūmiņš, the heart and soul of the team, manically implored his flagging team‑mates to seize the moment against an upstart Russian team comprised of players 25 and under, who had shocked number one seed Serbia in a semi‑final thrashing to humiliate 3x3 GOAT Dušan Bulut. Capturing the imagination of their compatriots back home, the gold medal game was the most‑watched event of the entire Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Russia, according to FIBA.

In a set play they had fine‑tuned over four long years grinding on the FIBA 3x3 professional circuit, where these Latvian players represent powerhouse Riga, Miezis had possession on the Olympic logo and waited for Lasmanis, who in a decoy action lost his defender, aided by a perfectly executed screen by Čavars, his speciality, allowing him to get a clean look at the basket with 29 seconds left in the game.

‘He’s the man with big balls,’ Miezis said, as the Latvians knew this was a moment Lasmanis, whose father Uģis represented Latvia in rowing at the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics, had dreamt of for a long time.

As he had done countless times on the FIBA 3x3 World Tour, Lasmanis drained the gold medal‑winning two‑pointer from well beyond the arc to trigger wild celebrations capped by an ailed Krūmiņš – who would subsequently be sidelined for three months – launching himself on his team‑mates rolling around the court in a love fest.

After claiming Latvia’s only gold medal in Tokyo, and just the tiny Baltic nation’s fifth ever at the Summer Games, the players were treated as something like rock stars when they returned home to Riga with fans lining the streets for eight kilometres to celebrate the nation’s newest heroes.

‘I’m not LeBron but people recognise and approach me,’ said Lasmanis, who was set to join rapper‑actor‑turned‑ entrepreneur Ice Cube’s gaudy Big3 professional three‑on‑ three league in the United States in 2022.

Latvia’s unsung gold medallists, all four of them basketball outcasts who received unexpected lifelines, perfectly symbolised the underdog and slightly oddball appeal of 3x3. Honed from the tough playgrounds in the eastern European country, Lasmanis, Miezis, Čavars and Krūmiņš conquered the biggest stage in sports to live out Baumann’s long‑held dreams of taking condensed basketball from the streets to the Olympics, which became 3x3’s official catchcry.

‘It’s a sport that welcomes people and there are no divas,’ said legendary sports reporter Alexander Wolff, who chronicled 3x3 for Sports Illustrated with several memorable long‑form articles.

‘The players might not be the perfect specimens, but there is a kind of identification that goes on between the viewer and these athletes, which narrative wise is pretty effective. The Olympics is the first time many people saw 3x3.

‘Patrick Baumann would have been so proud and it would have been the crowning achievement of his career.’

Chapter 1

FIBA shows interest in three‑on‑three

IN EARLY July 2007, Patrick Baumann should have been jaded as he traversed different continents scurrying between his high‑profile roles with FIBA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Amid a gruelling schedule, the FIBA secretary general had spent several hectic days at the IOC’s 119th session in Guatemala City where the Russian seaside resort of Sochi was named host city of the 2014 Winter Games.

Baumann, one month shy of his 40th birthday, was a newcomer on the coveted IOC but tipped for big things within the Olympic fraternity, underlined by having a strong rapport with president Jacques Rogge.

Always sporting a jam‑packed schedule, this was no exception as Baumann headed to Novi Sad, Serbia, for a FIBA Youth Commission meeting during the U19 Basketball World Cup, which featured a 19‑year‑old Steph Curry along with future NBA players DeAndre Jordan, Patrick Beverley, Nic Batum and Boban Marjanović.

But, as he left the Central American country, Baumann showed no signs of weariness, which wasn’t particularly unusual for the indefatigable Swiss who had an unrelenting work ethic. ‘He wasn’t able to switch off. He would be on 24/7,’ said former FIBA communications coordinator Simon Wilkinson.

‘He expected everyone to be working at the same pace as he could. No one else could. He was passionate. You couldn’t fault his commitment.’

Baumann, however, was more enthusiastic than usual. In Guatemala City, the IOC endorsed a proposal to establish the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) aimed at 14–18‑year‑olds in a ‘new sporting event to educate, engage and influence young athletes’.

The IOC’s mission, among others, was to ‘raise awareness and participation among young people’ and the first YOG was to be held in 2010.

The upcoming meeting in Serbia proved fortuitous timing with Baumann having much to share about the robust discussion on the IOC’s roundtable.

But he couldn’t wait. Proactive, in his trademark style, a giddy Baumann called Lubomir Kotleba, FIBA’s sport director, who had a long career in basketball marked by a distinguished 14‑year stint as an international referee.

‘I was just with the IOC and they’ve decided something must be done,’ Baumann told Kotleba.

‘People are losing interest in the Olympic Games. It is losing relevance, especially for the young generation who don’t care about some of the traditional Olympic sports. It has scared the IOC who believe the Olympics will be forgotten. They need to modernise it.’

Baumann detailed how an IOC‑commissioned study on urban sport found non‑traditional sports were growing rapidly, particularly for youth.

The findings created urgency within the IOC to embrace urban sports and include them in the Olympic program.

The IOC, Baumann said, was spooked by the X Games, an annual extreme sports event organised and broadcast by ESPN in the mid‑1990s, which gained popularity in the 2000s highlighted by its largest single‑day attendance of 79,380 in 2004 in Los Angeles.

The action sports event expanded from North America and into Europe, South America and Asia with its popular core sports including skateboarding, BMX, snowboarding and, eventually, e‑gaming.

‘X Games has more impact on the core audience than the Olympics,’ Snowboarder Magazine editor Tom Monterosso told Vice in 2015.

Baumann then went on to detail the IOC’s implantation of the YOG to Kotleba, a pragmatic Slovak who had, since 1989, been part of FIBA, which had only a full‑time staff of seven at the time rendering him to being something of a jack of all trades, including cleaning the office on occasion.

It was a far cry from the hundreds of staff members FIBA employed decades later at its inimitable ‘House of Basketball’ headquarters in Mies near Geneva in south‑western Switzerland.

‘They have to bring in sports that are for young people. Something new,’ Baumann said. ‘Lubo, we have to do something similar.

‘What do you think about us starting a new sport? What do you think of three‑on‑three basketball? We won’t be starting something new but what will be new is that it will be played at the national level. But do you think it can become an Olympic sport? Can we get two sports into the Olympics?’

It was a verbal overload for Kotleba, who had never paid attention to the various three‑on‑three competitions around the world that were removed from FIBA’s orbit.

He didn’t quite know how to respond because he was oblivious of three‑on‑three but didn’t want to dampen his boss’s obvious excitement.

After a brief contemplation, he offered encouragement, ‘Patrick, I think it might work at the Olympic level. I can imagine a sunny day in the future at the Olympics, where we have two sets of medals.

‘You know why I think that? Governments are asking their national Olympic committees to bring back more medals. It’s great prestige for governments when their countries win more medals and doing well provides goodwill. There will always be influential support for more sports being included.’

‘Lubo, you will look into three‑on‑three,’ an emboldened Baumann replied with gusto.

‘Patrick, I do not have time. I’m already doing a million things. I don’t even have time to go to the toilet!’ said Kotleba, who attempted to try to wriggle himself out of the situation.

‘Lubo, you know I love you,’ Baumann chuckled. ‘We need you for this. Do it… for me.’

***

Well before the IOC’s directive, Baumann and senior officials had been intrigued by three‑on‑three for some time.

The basketball governing body had monitored the heyday of American private promoters in the 1990s riding off the back of the NBA’s global explosion as they attempted to expand into Europe, which was at the heart of FIBA’s operations.

There were some informal discussions between senior officials about potentially FIBA getting involved, but they never amounted to anything serious.

However, the power brokers became edgy after FIBA Europe, the European branch of the governing body, and the Union of European Leagues of Basketball (ULEB), consisting of the continent’s richest and most powerful clubs, engaged in a nasty dispute in 2000 that has remained bitter ever since.

In a power struggle for European authority, ULEB parted ways with FIBA and created its own EuroLeague, which has remained the biggest competition in Europe although the bloody war has continued to rage intermittently throughout the years.

Amid such a damaging, long‑winded saga, FIBA administrators were keen to avoid a similar fate from three‑ on‑three.

‘We were silently observing three‑on‑three from 2001 onwards,’ Kotleba said.

‘People were saying, Shit if we do not step in now there will be an organisation outside of FIBA organising three‑ on‑three. It was not a serious threat because no promoter expressed a wish to create an independent organisation that was going to structure this whole game and take control of it.

‘But if Patrick hadn’t come up with this idea to push three‑ on‑three then someone else probably would have come along. Maybe a Big3 type of league would have grabbed it and stated, We are the owners of three‑on‑three in the world.’

Baumann was determined to rejuvenate FIBA, which formed in 1932, two years after basketball was officially recognised by the IOC.

It oversees international competitions while establishing official basketball rules, and by 2022 brought together 212 national basketball federations.

But FIBA was widely perceived as stringent and archaic by the time Baumann stepped into the hot seat in 2002 at just 35 years of age, after a rapid rise to the top.

After finishing his law degree from the University of Lausanne in 1990, Baumann joined FIBA four years later as a general counsel and quickly rose the ladder impressing everyone with his shrewdness, ingenuity and unwavering devotion to the job.

In 1995, he was appointed deputy secretary‑general before taking the reins from the legendary Boris Stanković, who was an instigator in allowing NBA players to participate in the Olympics and FIBA competitions ushering the way for the iconic 1992 Dream Team to dominate at the Barcelona Games and spark a basketball boon worldwide.

Seeing basketball spread like wildfire through the 1990s was a formative experience for Baumann, who spoke five languages fluently and had an innate ability to push past cultural barriers.

His worldly outlook fuelled a belief that basketball could one day legitimately challenge football’s global supremacy.

It led to FIBA, later in Baumann’s tenure, poaching Markus Studer from UEFA, where he was the deputy chief executive, and he initiated the development of FIBA’s Basketball Champions League in 2016 with obvious parallels to football’s highly prestigious UEFA Champions League.

Bespectacled and doughy, looking boyish despite his receding hairline, Baumann had a gentler edge than the crusty Serb, Stanković, who ruled with an iron fist.

It wasn’t just appearance; Baumann sought a more inclusive leadership approach.

‘I had access to him quite easily. Was able to go up to him directly and talk to him instead of having to go through bureaucratic levels. That is not usually the case in a big organisation,’ said Wilkinson, who felt more appreciation for Baumann’s managerial style after leaving FIBA in 2019.

He might not have known yet exactly if three‑on‑three was a viable business idea, but Baumann had an instinct that this shortened game could unlock FIBA and shake it from its staid foundations, while making basketball more popular globally, particularly in traditional barren areas like the subcontinent and parts of Asia.

Smaller basketball nations essentially had no hope of ever making World Cups or Olympics, but maybe they could in three‑on‑three, which required a smaller pool of players.

Baumann envisioned global top‑class events, World Cups and continental competitions for men’s and women’s, adding to FIBA coffers, but that at the opposite end of the spectrum three‑on‑three could be a friendlier introduction to the sport.

Three‑on‑three would be a complement to basketball not a substitute or competitor, he foreshadowed.

Having noted three‑on‑three’s rapid popularity in the 1990s in the United States, Baumann was confident the game could be revived and tweaked to adapt to a modern audience, increasingly glued to their devices and with less attention span.

There were a lot of unknowns, but it came down to the three‑on‑three format never having been formally established with worldwide uniform rules.

FIBA estimated that unregistered three‑on‑three players outnumber licensed basketball players by a ratio of five to one.

This pickup game, already widely played informally worldwide, was sitting there for FIBA to take ownership of. Baumann intended to do exactly that.

Shortly after it was floated around the boardrooms in Novi Sad – which was quite symbolic given the Serbian city would become a breeding ground of top 3x3 talent – FIBA approved three‑on‑three and determined it was the format to represent basketball at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

After it had been officially ratified, there was the mere matter of creating rules and a structure.

Quickly becoming his pet project, Baumann wanted the ball rolling and thus three‑on‑three basketball was accepted as a demonstration sport at the Asian Indoor Games in Macau in October 2007.

‘We didn’t know what to do. The basketball federations had no clue what we wanted from them. There was nothing,’ said Kotleba. ‘But we needed to organise rules as we needed to educate players and send teams to Macau.’

It left a stressed Kotleba with just one month to scramble to develop official rules from scratch. Working around the clock, he studied the rules from three‑on‑three and streetball tournaments from the USA and around Europe, including Sweden and major leagues in Hamburg and Moscow, which attracted hundreds of thousands of participants.

With help desperately needed, 25‑year‑old intern Kevin Bovet sensed an opportunity to impress.

The 6ft 6in former Swiss basketball player cut his teeth on the new project with exhaustive research, as Bovet studied footage of Hoop It Up and other three‑on‑three/streetball tournaments wildly popular in the United States in the late 1980s and 1990s.

‘Hoop It Up was a true TV product and emerging brands, like Gatorade, were leveraging to get involved and push their products,’ Bovet said.

‘What made three‑on‑three popular was sponsorship, television and connecting grassroots with the NBA. Patrick’s goal was to really bring this back and use it as an initiative to make basketball even more accessible globally.

‘That bode well with what the IOC wanted to do and aligned with the IOC’s aspirations for the Youth Olympic Games.’

To properly grasp the rise and fall of three‑on‑three in the United States, the FIBA staffers needed to firstly learn its humble origins from decades earlier.

Chapter 2

Three‑on‑three’s origins

DURING HIS spring break in 1974, a