How Did Team USA, Led By Jimmer Fredette, Just Lose In 3×3 Olympic Basketball?

How could we let this happen?

The United States of America has a rich tradition of kicking a** in basketball at the global level. Yet when the players on the court shrink from 5 vs. 5 to 3 vs. 3, we apparently aren’t as much of a powerhouse. The U.S. team just matched up against Serbia, and to put thing blatantly, they got molly-whopped.

Team U.S.A. consists of two veteran 3×3 players in Kareem Maddox and Canyon Barry (son of Rick Barry), alongside two players that are newer to the version of the sport: former D-II national champion Dylan Travis and legendary BYU sharpshooter Jimmer Fredette. Yes, that Jimmer Fredette.

And just in case you aren’t familiar with the rules of 3×3 basketball, here are some key differences to be aware of:

-Played on half court

-There’s no help side defense

-Played to 21 points by ones and twos

-12 second shot clock

So it’s basically just a fast-paced, glorified version of pick up basketball. It’s incredibly fun to watch… though I just can’t wrap my head around the U.S.A. not being the best team on the planet. The roster I introduced to you earlier is actually the number two ranked team in the world… but why aren’t we just taking some of those NBA players that were snubbed from the 5v5 Olympic team and throwing them out there?

Believe it or not, 35-year-old Jimmer Fredette is the top ranked 3v3 player in the world. That’s great, but he didn’t look all that “top ranked” in the men’s first pool game against Serbia. To be transparent, Serbia is the number one ranked 3v3 team on the planet, so it wasn’t exactly an upset. But come on America… we should be just as dominant in 3v3 as we are in 5v5.

U.S.A. lost to Serbia in their first game 22-14:

And to make matters worse, our women’s national 3×3 team lost earlier today as well. College star Hailey Van Lith and the rest of the U.S. squad fell to Germany 17-13 (neither team made it to 21 before the time limit ran out). I’ll continue to root for both the men’s and women’s 3×3 teams… but there’s no excuse for our nation’s basketball teams to be losing.

Someone get Caitlin Clark on the phone ASAP!