Taking care of yourself is important
Remember: having good rest, eating well, exercising and reading a lot every day will make you a better 3x3 fan, player and simply a better person. Just take a look at this Hulk of a player from Serbia:
Thanks for your patience to all readers, especially subscribers, you rock! If you like our work, please share it with your network. Remember, we are on X too, and our FB group is somehow growing, surprisingly!
Interesting facts about 3x3 basketball
100% from USA, is it OK?
NBA players with 3x3 background
You may recall a few post-NBA players playing in FIBA3x3, for instance Jimmer Fredette, DeMarcus Cousins or Robbie Hummel. And hopefully much more playing in BIG3 ;). But today we want to focus on the stories from the journey in the opposite direction - from 3x3 to NBA. Here are two examples of players who certainly made a difference playing streetball:
Young Payton Pritchard (5 seasons in Boston Celtics) demolishing conyoung Polish team:
And Alfonzo McKinnie (a quarter of a season in Golden State Warriors)
It would be a great story to see them in BIG3 in the future…
Biggest streetball tournament ever - Gus Macker
The 50 years old Gus Macker Basketball Tournament is a cornerstone of 3-on-3 basketball in the United States.
It began in 1974 as a small 3-on-3 basketball event in Lowell, Michigan, organized by Scott McNeal and his brother Mitch. Starting with 18 friends and a $18 prize. McNeal, who had been nicknamed "Gus Macker" by a friend since seventh grade, used his nickname for the tournament. The event has since grown into a nationwide phenomenon, promoting teamwork, sportsmanship, and community engagement.
Have you heard about it before? The book about 3x3 we mentioned some time ago covers this story pretty well, too.
BIG3
The two biggest names and the two most talked-about contracts signed before the new season were definitely Dwight Howard joining the Los Angeles Riot and Montrezl Harrell joining the Chicago Triplets. These two powerful players faced off in a direct duel quite recently. It wasn't an even match, but you have to admit that Superman and Trez are in good shape:
If you're more into battles between fabulous technical shooters than musclemen, we've got something for you too. Two of the league's top scorers, Michael Beasley and Glen Rice Junior, faced each other in the same round. A very cool, evenly matched game, showcasing the atmosphere, level, setting, and execution of the league's games. It's truly worth watching:
FIBA 3x3 World Tour
Happy to see some fresh blood in the pro circuit and our power ranking as well.
Week Month summary
Masters in Ulaanbaatar (top3: Liman, Bonn, Ulaanbaatar) and Hong Kong (Ub, Hangzhou, Chongming) showed us two things:
Serbian dominance, again.
Nemanja Barac really can shoot from the distance.
Ah, one more - 3x3 World Tour masters looks very bad without an audience. It was a sad experience to see teams without best players playing in front of empty seats in Hong Kong.
Two challengers in France another two in Pristina and Jakarta provided some interesting insights, too.
Second Swiss team (after Lausanne) - Lugano - won the last one in style. Seems they have combined all what is needed in their roster: experience, youth, size and speed. Well deserved first win in Indonesia!
We can say the same about the second Latvian team (after Riga) - Kandava - second in Poitiers Challenger, 4th in Hong Kong Masters. Good to see Edgars Krumins back in shape again.
Also Lithuanians have the team B - Marijampole - but they didn’t convince us yet.
Anyway, you can clearly see that countries treating 3x3 seriously have at least 2 teams in professional circuit. Think about it in the context of your basketball national federation and let us know whether it passed this simple test.
#3x3PowerRanking
Top 21 teams in the world, in our opinion. Since the previous one, we added two.
Format: position, team, position change, current FIBA3x3 ranking (July 31st 2025), reason.
UB, -, 1, won in Hong Kong without Maestro!
Amsterdam, -, 3, no Worthy = no results.
Toulouse, -, 2, winning the challenger in France was mandatory.
Raudondvaris, +1, 6, only one tournament (Pristina), but 1st place.
Miami, -1, 4, so-so month.
Liman, +1, 5, great win in Ulaanbaatar.
Chongming, -1, 9, seems still looking for optimal rotation.
Hangzhou, -, 14, second place in Hong Kong.
Bonn, +1, 13, second place in Ulaanbaatar, another step made.
Partizan, +2, 12, usually top 5.
Vienna, -2, 8, 2nd in Orleans challenger.
Ulaanbaatar, +2, 10, 3rd in Mongolia, 8th in Hong Kong, good month.
Riffa, -2, 7, recent roster changes don’t work, yet?
Carolina, +5, 16, they play effective and attractive.
Barcelona, +1, 23, 6th in Jakarta, 9th in Poitiers.
Utrecht, +1, 17, 4th in Jakarta.
Shinagawa, +1, 22, won two 3x3.EXE tournaments.
Skyliners, new, 15, may end in top 10 at the end of the season.
London, -6, 11, didn’t play.
Kandava, new, 20, see chapter above.
Lausanne, -6, 19, took a long break.
Predictions
Edmonton Masters - we will see a lot of American streetball, that’s for sure. Three teams from USA: Miami, Phoenix and Washington DC. Last one looks most interesting, but they have the strongest group opponents.
It is difficult to bet against Ub now. We think the second finalist may come from China/Latvia (Chongming) or US (Miami).
World Cup summary
From FIBA’s perspective 3x3 World Championships 2025 were a big success. Why are these 200000 new followers still not subscribed to our newsletter? It was extremely intense for us; we watched and described all games for our Polish audience of 3x3basket.pl. After summer vacation we are finally ready for some mini retrospective:
Surprises
NOBODY expected Spaniards to win it all!
… and nobody expected Switzerland to play in the final, too:
We hope to see more and more Spanish teams in the pro circuit - they play smooth, intelligent and effective 3x3 basketball which is fun to watch.
Disappointments
The biggest negative surprise is final position (17!) of French men’s team, by far. We expected them in the final four, together with Netherlands (9) by the way.
For sure fans in the USA can be disappointed, one more time. 3x3 is still too difficult for Americans to master. They finished 5th, despite huge expectations and one of the best rosters ever.
It is also quite typical for the Serbians not being able to prove their no. 1 ranking position during the most important tournaments like Olympic Games or World Cup. Bronze medal is nice, but who expected them to finish after Spain and Switzerland?
Stars stats
Iván Aurrecoechea World Cup’s stats are crazy. He recorded 3 double 5s, and led also in 1 points shoots percentage - 80%!
Antonio Ralat was the best in shooting, averaging 10.2 points per game - he made 53% of his one-pointers, 43% of twos and 100% free throws.
Dylan Travis, one of our favourite players is like wine. He didn’t score as much as Ralat, but his shooting efficiency was unmatched in Mongolia: 64% inside arc, 56% outside, 92% from the line. Plus 10 assists, 12 rebounds in 5 games. Who wouldn’t want to have such player on their team?
That’s all for this week; hopefully it was worth waiting for a month. Thanks for reading!