The first urban team sport in the world, according to a study by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), 3x3 basketball will be on the program for the Olympic Games for the first time and should make it possible to further professionalize a discipline that has long been practiced on playgrounds. outdoor play areas) from around the world.

While five-on-five basketball is already the king of collective sport of the Olympic Games, since the craze created by the American "Dream Team" at the Barcelona Games in 1992, basketball offers itself a new window thanks to the 3x3. exposure.

From July 25 to 29, viewers who do not yet know this discipline will be able to discover it with a men's tournament and a women's tournament - for which the Blue have qualified and are among the favorites to win a medal.

2016 World Cup Final USA vs Serbia

If the principle is still to send a ball into a basket, the rules are however somewhat different. A 3x3 match is played on half-court with a single basket and lasts only 10 minutes, or even less if a team reaches 21 points before the end of regulation time. Unlike traditional basketball where a marked basket is worth two points, a 3x3 basket is worth only one point. Likewise, a three-point shot - behind an arc located 6.75 m from the basket - is only worth two points in this discipline. In the event of a tie at the end of the 10 minutes, the two teams play an overtime. The first to score two points wins.

“It's a more dynamic format than traditional basketball,” explains Karim Souchu, a former professional traditional basketball player and now coach of the French 3x3 teams, contacted by France 24. “There are far fewer stoppages in play. , the referees whistle less faults and the team in possession of the ball has only 12 seconds to shoot, against 24 in the 5x5, he adds. Everything is done to speed up the game. It is a form of cardio basketball. "

"The 3x3 is on the rise"

Like rugby sevens, also present at the Olympic Games, this high-speed basketball is very popular with the public.

Especially since the style of play practiced - very fast and facing the basket - implies a different player profile, whose physique is closer to the average spectator than that of the stars of the NBA.

"In the 3x3, the players are smaller, but with greater cardio capacities, underlines Karim Souchu. The best players in the world have a very specific physique."

Considered the world star of 3x3, Serbian Dusan Bulut, nicknamed "BulutProof, is the perfect example. He is" only "1.91m tall, while orange ball superstar LeBron James is 2.06m and that the very recent best player of the NBA Finals, the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo, culminates him at 2.11 m.

Highlights from Dusan Bulut

On the side of the governing bodies of world basketball, the presence of 3x3 at the Tokyo Games gives hope for significant benefits. "There is an appetite for urban sport and 3x3 is on the rise. Street basketball has always existed, but the fact of becoming an Olympic discipline will legitimize this discipline and allow it to increase. the number of practitioners, "said the president of the French Basketball Federation (FFBB), Jean-Pierre Siutat, contacted by France 24.

Because if the FFBB had about 700,000 licensees before the arrival of Covid-19, making basketball the second team sport in France in terms of licensees behind football, it estimates the number of unlicensed practitioners at 2.5 million. By developing the practice of 3x3, the Federation intends to attract new players under its banner. Its objective is ambitious: it wants to go from 1,500 and 2,000 annual tournaments currently organized across France to 10,000 tournaments per year by 2024, the year of the Olympic Games in Paris.

This voluntarism viewed favorably by the local authorities which benefit from the installation or renovation of numerous basketball courts.

In Paris, around fifteen sites must be renovated in the coming months.

The first of them, boulevard Vincent-Auriol in the 13th arrondissement, designed by the artist L'Atlas, was inaugurated on June 8.

A playground restyled by L'Atlas

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