3-on-3 Basketball Comes to Summer Olympics

Millennials aren't just taking over the world. They're taking over the Summer Olympics, too.

In an effort to gain more interest from young people and in urban areas, the International Olympics Committee on Friday announced it was adding 3-on-3 basketball to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

It's like NBA Street, the once-popular video game, in an Olympic setting. There will be eight teams in the men's and women's tournaments, totaling 64 athletes. They will play in a half-court format, which was introduced at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore. IOC sports director Kit McConnell said an urban Tokyo venue could be announced when the organization's board meets again on July 9-10.

FIBA, the international basketball federation, has held World Championships, also called World Cups, in the event since 2012. It is played with just one hoop and two teams of four players, one substitute apiece. Game time is traditionally 10 minutes long or the first team to reach 21 points. There are no timeouts, no halftime break and a 12-second shot clock. FIBA will announce at a later date if there will be country quotas, and what the qualification procedures will be.

It is uncertain who will be eligible for the event, if it will include an age limit, be open to professional or college athletes. But if NBA players are allowed to compete, who wouldn't want to see LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul take on Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Stephen Curry? Or, perhaps, the new "Big 3" basketball league, which involves Ice Cube, Allen Iverson and Charles Oakley, will produce entrants.

"The dream of a path from the streets to the Olympic Games has become reality for all the basketball community," said Patrick Baumann, the secretary general of FIBA.

BMX Freestyle cycling also was added to the games, while traditional sports such as weight lifting, wrestling, sailing and shooting will lose a combined 172 places for competition.

Last August, climbing, skateboarding, surfing, baseball, softball, and karate were added. Also new will be track cycling's men's and women's madison races, which will be held in a velodrome 80 miles outside Tokyo. Swimming will add men's 800-meter freestyle and women's 1,500 freestyle and a 4x100-meter mixed medley relay that is part of push to increase the number of mixed gender events. - with AP

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