'It's just a tough game': Why the U.S. doesn't dominate 3×3 basketball

PARIS — When the U.S. women’s 3×3 basketball team began its Olympic tournament 0-3, Hailey Van Lith was keenly aware of what people were saying back home.

Fans couldn’t understand how America — a country that dominates women’s basketball, with a 5-on-5 team riding a 57-game unbeaten streak in Olympic play that has stretched over two-plus decades — could lose to Germany, Azerbaijan and Australia.

Van Lith’s response: None of those people understood how 3-on-3 basketball works.

“I think the public doesn’t quite get the sport yet,” Van Lith told ESPN. “It’s just a tough game. It’s really gritty. It’s for the tough people. You can’t be soft and play.”

And Van Lith is willing to explain further: “We only play 10 minutes. So if you look at the first quarter of 5-on-5 games, they’re very, very close. And sometimes even the USA is down. So it’s a game of who’s hot. If our shooters aren’t hitting shots and the other team is, no matter how much better we are, we’re probably going to lose.”

The U.S. women won their final four games in pool play and are now through to the semifinals, where they’ll take on Spain (Monday at 11:30 a.m. ET), while the men finished 2-5 and were ousted from the tournament.

When 3×3 basketball was added to the Olympic slate in Tokyo in 2021, it looked poised to be another event of American domination. The funky, street-inspired version of traditional basketball features a half court, both teams shooting at the same basket and a 12-second shot clock. It’s an all-out sprint for 10 minutes, or the first team to hit 21 points. The ball is the size of the women’s ball, the weight of the men’s ball, and has grooves that force some seemingly easy layups to inexplicably miss — all designed to maintain free flowing, continuous play. The Parisian court is in the same complex as street sports like skateboarding and breaking — baking in the hot sun — and features a DJ and public announcer who doubles as a crowd hype man. Coaches aren’t on the bench to discuss strategy.

While America typically owns basketball, FIBA and the IOC have focused on a more competitive playing field. The American men’s team didn’t even qualify for Tokyo, though the women won gold featuring a team of WNBA players. The qualification system is points-based by player and team, rewarding those who play in more tournaments, which mostly overlap with the WNBA and NBA schedules. Similar guidelines do not exist for 5-on-5.

Put simpler: Players must go out of their way to compete in 3×3. Van Lith, for example, has played in 25 different 3×3 events to get on the Olympic radar, a lot of them during her college season downtime, when many of her peers are resting.

“Those are actually the hardest tournaments, because the refs are bad and there’s no one in the stands, so there’s no one cheering for you,” Van Lith said. “You’re just getting the crap beat out of you. It builds character, but you gotta give the time. A lot of times I don’t want to fly to Spain to go play in a tournament for four days and come right back. But if I want to make this team, I had to make that sacrifice. So that was the decision I made.”

The U.S. men’s team, meanwhile, competes together year-round on the professional world tour. Canyon Barry, Jimmer Fredette, Dylan Travis and Bryce Willis make up Team Miami outside of the Olympic cycle. Fredette, who last played professionally in China before fully focusing on 3×3 starting in 2022, is the player in the men’s circuit with NBA experience; he’s the top-ranked 3×3 player in the world. At these Olympics, the U.S. took a hit when Fredette suffered a left leg injury in the second pool play game against Poland; he has missed their past three games. Teams dress only four players.

“A lot of countries, a lot of teams have found unique ways to play — which is challenging,” said 34-year-old American Kareem Maddox, a former Princeton forward. “Every team you see is going to have a different style, different strategy. And I think basketball as a whole has gotten better across the world.”

That has led to parity in the sport, finally. While the Americans were the top-seeded 3×3 federation (combined men’s and women’s) entering the Olympics, non-basketball powers such as China, the Netherlands and Mongolia are in the top 10.

The men’s roster is a collection of many unique paths. Maddox took a three-year hiatus from his professional 5-on-5 career in Europe to work as a producer for NPR.

The women’s team, which features two WNBA players in Derica Hanby (who replaced the injured Cameron Brink) and Rhyne Howard, finds itself at another disadvantage: experience playing together. The team first got together as a unit during WNBA All-Star Weekend in Phoenix in late July, and has since had just two weeks of training.

Teams like Canada, which is the No. 1 women’s team in the world, play together year-round. According to Ron Yeung, the head of domestic development at Canada Basketball, after the Tokyo Olympics, Canada’s 3×3 players (who don’t play in the WNBA) committed to specializing in 3×3, and Canada provided them the tools needed to elevate the program, including strength and conditioning, therapy, video and analytics resources.

“We’re playing against basically professional 3-on-3 players,” Van Lith said. “America’s really the only country that hasn’t evolved to that. All these girls are playing, they get paid by their country to play 3-on-3 full-time. And in America, 5-on-5 is the culture. Like that’s what we do. This is our side job.

“So they just have such strong chemistry and flow that we’re almost trying to play catchup. But we’re so talented that we can hang around when we’re not quite there. But I think we’re getting there right now.”

Yeung said North America is behind a lot of European and Asian countries in 3×3 basketball, especially in terms of the quality of events.

“Looking at other countries, I think we all have struggled with finding athletes who are willing to commit to the sport and commit to playing … when the WNBA and professional seasons in Europe are over,” Yeung said. “For Canada, the success of this team has put a spotlight on the sport. We are now seeing athletes saying, ‘Hey, we want to try this, can we come to camp and try out.’ We now have athletes choosing 3-on-3 as a pathway for athletes, and it’s giving them choices and also for us it’s giving us an ability to grow the sport.”

For Van Lith, it’s also a pathway — to something different.

Once 3×3 was announced as an Olympic sport, Van Lith became ultra-focused on becoming part of it. The college star who just transferred from LSU to TCU, saw it as a path to get noticed by USA basketball.

“Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, all those girls, they used 3-on-3 as their entry into getting on the 5-on-5 team,” Van Lith said.

Along the way, she fell in love with the discipline, and the process.

“I would be fine with playing in it in multiple Olympics at 3-on-3. I truly love the game,” Van Lith said. “But I also think it’s a good way for me to get better and keep improving so that one day I can be on that final 5-on-5 team.”

That’s a goal most Americans would be able to understand.