Team USA’s Olympic 3x3 basketball teams are struggling

Team USA and Olympic basketball have become synonymous with each other over the years. The women’s and men’s teams have won the gold medal 9 and 16 times respectively, putting together squads that can be considered a “who’s who” of the NBA and WNBA, including the all-conquering Dream Team of the 1992 Olympic Games.

Given just how dominant the nation has been in the traditional 5x5 game, it would have been reasonable to expect the US to roll over the competition in the new 3x3 format, first seen at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The women’s team won gold in the Japanese capital, defeating the Russian Olympic Committee in the final and was out to defend its title in Paris, while the men’s squad is making its Olympic debut.

However, both teams have stumbled out of the blocks, combining to lose their first five games. The women’s team is 1-3 after beating Spain following losses to Germany, Azerbaijan and Australia, while the men have fallen to both Serbia and Poland.

So what’s going wrong?

“We are playing well, but we are just not making shots,” said men’s player Canyon Barry after his team’s second loss. “That is what it comes down to. They did not fall tonight.”

“We ran some good stuff, and we have to take the positive from it. It is a long tournament and, if it was easy, everybody would have a gold medal. We will keep fighting, even if it means we have to play in the losers’ bracket, and we do not get that bye into the next round. It does not matter to us.”

An important distinction to note is that the men’s 3x3 team does not feature the sport’s biggest names as the 5x5 team often does. Eleven out of the 12 players in the 5x5 squad have been named NBA All-Stars, while four players – LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid – are former MVPs.

In comparison, the only player on the 3x3 roster with NBA experience is Jimmer Fredette, who averaged 6 points per game while bouncing in and out of the league between 2011 and 2019.

The women’s roster has considerably more league experience, featuring multiple-time WNBA All-Stars Rhyne Howard and Dearica Hamby, who replaced impressive Los Angeles Sparks rookie Cameron Brink on the team after she suffered an ACL injury. Cierra Burdick played on-and-off in the league for several years while Texas Christian University’s Hailey Van Lith is one of the bigger names in college basketball.

None of the four players were on the team that won gold three years ago, however, which featured a group that had 10 All-Star nods between them.

“We have to stay together. We know what is not clicking for us, and we have to be better at that,” said Howard after the team’s defeat against Australia on Wednesday. “We are just trying to take what we can learn from it and be better next game.

“We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard and compete like we want to win gold.”

Is the game that different to conventional basketball?

Though the 3x3 format shares many standard rules with 5x5 competition, it has many features that fans might associate with “pickup” basketball, such as playing on one half of a basketball court and attacking and defending the same hoop.

The fast-paced games last a maximum of 10 minutes but can be won before the time limit if one team reaches 21 points. Shots inside the traditional three-point line count for one point, with shots from outside the arc counting for two.

Why doesn’t Team USA just select the best NBA and WNBA players for the 3x3 rosters?

The rules surrounding eligibility for Olympic competition are somewhat restrictive, meaning that it isn’t case of selecting the best hoopers available. Per FIBA, rosters must feature two players ranked within the top 10 of their country and two players ranked within the top 50 of their country or have the minimum number of ranking points.

Players earn ranking points by competing in FIBA 3x3-endorsed events, meaning that hypothetical first-time 3x3 players are not able to play at the Olympics.

With 5x5 basketball being overwhelmingly more popular in the US, the pool of athletes to choose from is not as diverse as it could be.

How much trouble is Team USA in?

Fortunately for both squads, all is not lost just yet as each team plays the seven other nations once each in the round-robin preliminary pool phase.

The first and second-placed teams advance automatically to the semifinals while teams ranked from third to sixth will collide in play-in games for the remaining spots. The seventh and eighth ranked teams are eliminated.

There will need to be a dramatic uptick in performances from each side, however, with both rooted to the bottom of their respective pools.

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