The U.S. has fielded a star-studded team in 5×5 men’s basketball at the 2024 Olympics, but that wasn’t the case in 3×3, with Jimmer Fredette being the biggest name on the roster. If you were wondering why none of the stars were on it, Brian Windhorst claimed on The Pat McAfee Show that FIBA has intentionally made it hard for them to participate.
“FIBA doesn’t really want the U.S. to do good in 3 on 3,” Windhorst said. “They really want that to be for countries that can’t field 5 on 5 teams and so they do all these things. They have all these different layers of things you have to do to qualify.”
“Kyrie can’t just show up and play,” Windhorst stated. “The only way you can play is if you play in like 15 qualifying events. It’s not 15, I’m just coming up with that number… What you’re talking about (NBA stars playing 5×5 and 3×3) is what they don’t want. They don’t want guys from America to be part of the 5-on-5 and this.”
(starts at 8:46 mark):
I am not sure I’d go as far as to say that FIBA has set rules specifically to make it harder for the top American players to qualify. They have made it hard for the top players from all the nations, with their eligibility criteria for the event. Let me explain how.
So, each team has four players in total and as per the rules, two of them have to be ranked within the top 10 for their nation and two have to be ranked within the top 50, or have the minimum number of ranking points.
The way players earn these ranking points is by playing a lot of 3×3 events like the FIBA 3×3 World Cup and taking part in the FIBA 3×3 World Tour. The governing body expects rosters to be made up of players who are regulars on the 3×3 circuit.
Now, a lot of these events overlap with the NBA season and even the European season, so the top players in the world cannot participate in many of them. They would only have time to play during the offseason and no one can blame them for wanting to rest instead of playing more basketball in that time.
With those rules in place, the U.S. fielded a team of Fredette, Canyon Barry, Kareem Maddox, and Dylan Travis, the four highest-ranked 3×3 players in the nation. Unfortunately, their hopes of winning a medal were dashed fairly quickly.
Fredette tore two ligaments in his adductor in the second game against Poland and missed the rest of the tournament. It meant Barry, Maddox, and Travis had to play every minute the rest of the way, which wasn’t ideal, to say the least.
The U.S. ended up winning just two of their seven games to finish seventh in the standings and failed to make it to the knockouts. It was a disappointing end to the campaign and one wonders how much of a difference Fredette could have made.
Getting back to NBA stars, who do you think would have done the best at 3×3? Well, Windhorst felt Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would shine in the format. (starts at the 6:27 mark in the above video.)
“Kevin Durant would be the greatest 3-on-3 player ever,” Windhorst said. “… Kevin Durant and Kyrie, forget about it.”
I think if Durant and Irving were on the roster, the U.S. would annihilate the competition. It would have been a lot of fun to see them in this format at the Olympics and it’s a pity that it’ll never happen.
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