It\u2019ll be hot. It\u2019ll be humid. Barely any fouls will be called.<\/p>\n
Seriously. Check the ball. It\u2019s yellow and blue, grooved like the skin of a pumpkin and weather-proof.<\/p>\n
Welcome to 3-on-3 basketball<\/strong>, a sport that\u2019s come all the way from your neighbor\u2019s driveway to its Olympics<\/strong> debut, the latest in the Games\u2019 attempt to take something familiar and make it younger, edgier, faster and wilder.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just like a tornado<\/strong>,\u201d Italian guard Rae Lin D\u2019Alie said with a Wisconsin accent as thick as beer cheese soup.<\/p>\n It\u2019s part car crash, part permanent fast break.<\/p>\n As the sun set over the event\u2019s grand opening, U.S. First Lady Jill Biden jumped out of her seat to applaud a 17-10 victory by the U.S. over France.<\/p>\n On his way out of the Aomi Urban Sports Park, French President Emmanuel Macron was asked by an American journalist about the U.S. performance against his team.<\/p>\n \u201cCome on, come on. They defeated us,\u201d Macron said with a grin. \u201cIt was sufficiently painful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It was also sufficiently amazing.<\/p>\n Played outdoors under a canopy that fittingly looked like a circus big top, this iteration of basketball made for as electric an atmosphere as you can get when the only people in the stands are dignitaries, volunteers and a Japanese youth basketball team hanging out in the edges of the rafters.<\/p>\n They witnessed four WNBA<\/strong> players parachute into a sport played full-time by their opponents and mostly dominate FIBA\u2019s<\/strong> top-ranked team.<\/p>\n \u201cDid it look like I had jet lag?\u201d U.S. guard Kelsey Plum said.<\/p>\n The former No. 1 overall pick said her attitude about playing in a perceived undercard to the main men\u2019s and women\u2019s tournament is \u201cWhy not\u201d do this?<\/p>\n \u201cTo make a five-on-five team in the United States is nearly impossible, you know, and so as a young player, why not get the experience and then try to hit it on the next round?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The American men\u2019s team, the reigning world champions, failed to qualify with no current NBA players<\/strong> after losing to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals of the qualifying tournament. The women\u2019s team, with WNBA stars<\/strong>, picked it up quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m used to the air conditioning,\u201d Allisha Grey said about adjusting to the wind and heat.<\/p>\n Each team has four players including one substitute who can check in after any stoppage. The game is played on a half court (the teams share the basket for pregame layups), with a 12-second shot clock. And just like at the park, you\u2019ve got to take the ball back behind the three-point line, except it\u2019s really a two-point line.<\/p>\n There was an in-house DJ and two in-house MC\u2019s commentating with the players\u2019 nicknames (one in English, one in Japanese). D\u2019Alie is \u201cRae Rae.\u201d USA center Stefanie Dolson is \u201cBig Mama.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019re characters \u2014 D\u2019Alie\u2019s voice drips with her Wis-can-sen accent when she speaks Italian or when she proclaims her love for the Wisconsin Badgers and her pride in the Milwaukee Bucks\u2019 championship.<\/p>\n Born in Waterford, Wis., she found the discipline by playing with some of her Italian league teammates and fell in love with the game \u2014 a form of basketball with the pace and space that NBA teams crave built right into the rules.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like backyard basketball, where \u2026 you just find a way to win. And sometimes it doesn\u2019t look great. And sometimes it looks really awesome,\u201d D\u2019Alie, who hit the game-winner to qualify Italy, said. \u201cIt\u2019s really fun that way and there\u2019s a lot of space for creativity and spontaneity.\u201d<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s soon-to-be 39-year-old Ira Brown, a 6-foot-4 American power forward in Japan\u2019s pro basketball leagues who somehow ended up as a Japanese Olympian after being an eighth-round pick of the Kansas City Royals to pitch in 2001.<\/p>\n When he was firing fastballs for the Edmonton Cracker-Cats in the Northern Independent League, he could\u2019ve never imagined representing Japan in basketball. But 3-on-3? It\u2019s a haven for things like this.<\/p>\n \u201cThat would have sounded very crazy,\u201d Brown said. \u201cObviously, when I was younger, basketball was definitely not in in the cards. I love to play the game, but obviously baseball was my love. But, I\u2019m here now so it\u2019s a blessing. But for sure I wouldn\u2019t ever thought it in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n Down by one in the final seconds of a game with Poland with DMX bumping on the speakers, Brown tied the game for the host country. But as fast as the party went up, it came crashing down when Poland hit a game-winner in sudden-death, first-to-two overtime.<\/p>\n Still, Brown got to compete in the Olympics.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t even express that. I mean, I can\u2019t express it,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt\u2019s just, it\u2019s just, mind blowing, mind blowing that I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis called the debut \u201chistoric.\u201d Players such as Plum, D\u2019Alie and Brown beamed after their debuts. It felt like a weird, wonderful success.<\/p>\n Zagklis noted how the Belgium men\u2019s team managed to upset Latvia \u2014 the lead changing four times in the last 25 seconds is kind of the template for what a professional 3-on-3 game can look like.<\/p>\n The U.S. women, the major favorites, won twice, helping put American eyes on the sport. And other nations provided the fireworks, showing why people believe this formalized version of street basketball can grow.<\/p>\n If you can award medals in indoor and outdoor versions of volleyball, why not in basketball?<\/p>\n After beating France, they cruised past Mongolia, a country that\u2019s never played Olympic basketball before 3-on-3\u2019s introduction Saturday. A gold medal will be given out Wednesday, the Americans almost a certainty to claim it.<\/p>\n But along the way, enjoy Big Mama, the fastball-throwing baller, the Italian Badger and the rest of the characters.<\/p>\n \u201cFive on five is where players make their money,\u201d U.S. 3-on-3 coach Kara Lawson said. \u201cBut they\u2019d say this is more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n