The incredibly entertaining and fast-paced game that captivates audiences.
Overview
3x3 basketball is an exciting and innovative sport. It developed from street basketball and is considered to be the world’s No. 1 urban team sport. In 2007, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) formally adopted universal rules for 3x3 basketball ahead of its debut at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Singapore.
Since 2012, FIBA has organised the FIBA 3x3 World Cup which is contested among nations while the FIBA 3x3 World Tour is club based. In 2017, 3x3 was selected as an official Olympic sport for the Tokyo 2020 Games and is the first-ever new YOG discipline to be included in the Olympic programme. As a result, in just seven years the sport has gone from the streets to the Olympic Games.
Some 182 countries and regions participate in the world competitions, and the number of players practising the sport exceeds 430,000.
3x3 basketball is played on half a regular five-a-side basketball court, with each team shooting into a single hoop. Teams consists of four players, three players on court and one substitute. A coin toss is held to determine which team will start the game on offence. The three-point line in conventional basketball serves as the two-point line in 3x3 basketball, with shots made outside the line earning two points and those inside it one (free throws also earn a single point if a foul is committed inside the arc). The winner is the team with the highest score at the end of the 10-minute period, or the first team to reach 21 points. If the score is tied after 10 minutes, the game goes into overtime with the first team to score two points declared the winner.