You might have been able to spot Kevin Durant sitting court side at Team USA women's basketball 3×3 Olympic game against Australia on Thursday, but that doesn't mean he or his fellow NBA superstars Steph Curry and LeBron James would ever play for the American 3×3 squad. Why?
In a word, while it's imminently watchable for fans, there's nothing sexy about 3×3 Olympic basketball. The fast-paced Olympic variation doesn't lend itself to the swaggy style of play fans are used to soaking up from their favorite NBA stars.
For starters, the rules feel like they were hatched in your parents' driveway while playing a pickup game with friends. There are two ten-minute halves, baskets count as one point each, three pointers count as two points, first team to 21 wins, and you clear it at the three-point line every time the ball changes possession since you're just playing on a half-court.
Sounds easy enough but the real kicker is that there's only a 12 second shot clock, not 24 seconds like in the pros. That means that as soon as you make a basket, you're turning around to pick up someone to guard on defense before they get an easy bucket.
This was the toughest adjustment for former college standout and NBA journeyman Jimmer Fredette, the biggest name on the Team USA men's 3×3 squad.
As the Washington Post reports, when Fredette was thrown into his first official 3×3 tournament, “in one of his first games, he made a jumper and immediately found the other team’s biggest player boxing him out, then catching a lob pass and scoring before Fredette even realized what was happening.”
Let that sink in for a second. That means no celebration time whatsoever after money buckets. No “nighty-night” from Steph Curry, no “you can't see me” from Angel Reese, no “stirring the pot” from James Harden, no “too small” from Pat Bev, no “it's cold in here” from Ice Trae, no “shave that back hair” from — ok, that's not a real one, just seeing if you're paying attention.
And if NBA stars are able to brush aside their egos long enough to put up with that slight, the next one might prove a little more challenging — the travel accommodations for the tournament play required to qualify as a 3×3 Olympic team aren't exactly what NBA players have come to expect as professionals.
Last year the men's team made 18 stops on the world tour in order to qualify for Paris. You're often times sleeping in small hotel rooms, with beds right up next to each other. Is waking up to the sight of Jimmer Fredette snoring right in your face anyone's idea of a “dream team”? (Sorry, Jimmermania fanatics, hopefully you're less intense than Swifties).
Finally, the United States is the only country in competition where playing 3×3 basketball isn't a full time job.
As Fredette's teammate Kareem Maddox explains, “In the current situation of 3×3 in the United States, there's no full-time 3-on-3 players. Everywhere else in the world, everyone's a full-time 3-on-3 player.”
All of the players on Team USA have day jobs to pay the bills. And sure, Steph Curry and LeBron James have production companies and are successful businessmen, but it's not exactly the same thing. The 3×3 Olympics basketball team is definitely grittier than its 5×5 colleagues, but both squads deserve a great deal of respect if they can pull off the gold.
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