The United States has struggled in men’s 3×3 basketball since it became an Olympic sport at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

While the women’s team won gold and bronze in their first tournament this year, the men’s team did not fare as well. They did not qualify for the first Olympic cycle and finished second to last in pool play at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

It’s a very different sport than the five-on-five basketball played in the NBA, but there are a few reasons why U.S. men’s basketball hasn’t looked very good in that format.

Here’s more from Brian Windhorst on why this happened (via ESPN):

“If you want to have a real conversation about it, I’ll tell you why… FIBA ​​really doesn’t want the U.S. to do well in 3v3. They really want that for countries that can’t field a 5v5 team. That’s why they’re doing all this. There’s all these different layers and layers you have to go through to make the playoffs. I’m not just talking about the team. Kyrie (Irving) can’t just show up and play.”

While NBA players are allowed to participate in the competition, two players on the roster must be “among the top 10 players in their country” and the other two must be “among the top 50 players in their country” to meet eligibility requirements, according to NBC.

The goal is to have athletes who compete regularly only in FIBA ​​3×3 events. Windhorst explained that FIBA ​​“doesn’t care about ratings” and instead prefers to “grow the game somewhere else outside of the U.S.” FIBA ​​is not making it easy for Team USA to send their best players.

Emily Kaplan added more in her report, via ESPN:

“The elimination system is points-based on a per-player and per-team basis, rewarding those who play in more tournaments, which often overlap with the WNBA and NBA schedules. There are no similar rules for 5v5. To put it simply: Players must do their best to compete in 3×3.”

All the best basketball players in the world play in the 5×5 tournament, but qualifying for the 3×3 tournament is much more difficult.

On the women’s side, TCU’s Hailey Van Lith, for example, played in 25 different 3×3 events in order to “get on the Olympic radar” to qualify for this tournament, according to Kaplan.

By the way, these events occur concurrently with the NBA (and WNBA) seasons, so it’s unlikely we’ll see an NBA player step onto a 3×3 court during the Olympics.