Adjust your TV schedules hoopsters because there would not only be the traditional 5-on-5 basketball during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but there will also be the 3-on-3 basketball. The urban sport is one of the 60 proposals to be added to the Olympic schedule and is also tipped for approval at the IOC executive board meeting on 9 June 2017, in Switzerland.
Across America, amateurs and professionals are playing 3-on-3 basketball more than they play the old-school 5-on-5 basketball. Therefore, International Olympic Committee adopted the same method and have added this ultra-popular version to the Olympics in Tokyo.
The half-court basketball layout is close in essence to the neighborhood park games and almost got itself included in the 2016 Olympics. However, its proposal for addition got stifled when Rio de Janeiro organizers fell behind preparing for the traditional mode of basketball.
3-on-3 is essentially the variation that a lot of us have played in our neighboring parks.The court is cut in half and scoring is done by 1 or 2 with a 10-minute limit. Moreover, if your opponents miss a shot, you have to perfect it outside the 3-point line before shooting.
For many years now, the international organizing body of basketball (FIBA) is pushing for a 3-on-3 version of basketball. They see it on the lines of beach volleyball compared to the conventional indoor format. Now, FIBA feels that men’s and women’s 3-on-3 tournaments are primed to be included in the Olympics after climbing and skate boarding joined the Tokyo lineup in 2016. In light of FIBA’s expansion plans for this urban version of basketball, a 3-on-3 world cup kicks off in France in late June 2017.
The game is primarily a non-stop sprint with no coach option. Therefore, do not expect pro-NBA athletes to jump into this 3-on-3 bandwagon. The U.S. players are former college athletes who did not make it to the prestigious NBA. That’s been said, imagine the troika of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James against the world, at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
