The Crelan FIBA 3×3 World Cup 2022 was held in Antwerp, Belgium from June 21-26, in a sold-out outdoor arena on the famous Groenplaats. The men’s and women’s tournaments were won by Serbia and France, respectively.
By beating Lithuania 21-16 in the final, Serbia won the World Cup for the fifth time (in seven tournaments!). Top-ranked 3×3 player Strahinja Stojacic scored 9 points, the most of any player. Dejan Majstorovic, one of his teammates, scored the most points for the squad and was voted the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. He won four 3×3 World Cups, making him the most successful player in tournament history. Ignas Vaitkus (Lithuania) and Thibaut Vervoort (Belgium) both joined him in the Tournament’s All-Star Team (Belgium).
France won a thrilling bronze medal match in the men’s division, beating the home team Belgium in overtime. Léo Cavaliere scored 8 points to lead France to victory despite the fact that they were down to only three men due to an ankle injury sustained by leading scorer Antoine Eito in the semifinals.
France’s women’s team defeated Canada 16-13 to claim their first World Cup title. Michelle Plouffe scored a game-high 7 points, but les Bleues got 10 from Laetitia Guapo and Hortense Limouzin. France made history by being the first team to ever win both the World Cup and the Women’s Series. After Guapo led her squad in scoring, she was named the most valuable player. Also included on the Tournament’s All-Star Team were Canadian Michelle Plouffe and Chinese player Lili Wang.
China’s women’s team won bronze in the Tokyo Olympics and the 2019 World Cup after a 21-11 victory over Lithuania. While Ji Yuan Wan led the team in scoring with seven points, Lili Wang and ZhiTing Zhang both chipped in with six.
Winners of the Crelan FIBA 3×3 World Cup 2022 qualified for the FIBA 3×3 World Cup 2023, where the top three finishers earned spots in the FIBA 3×3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament held in Paris in 2024.
Piotr “Grabo” Grabowski of Poland won the dunk event at the Crelan FIBA 3×3 World Cup 2022. The 6-foot-1 (1.83 m) dunker easily beat off Remco Frankin of the Netherlands and Kristaps Dargais of Latvia for silver and bronze, respectively.
3×3 is the most popular urban team sport in the world because it is exciting, urban, and original; it is based on numerous variations of streetball that are played all over the globe. Games are played on a basketball half-court, with two teams of three players each.
Success in the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games led to the creation of an annual professional circuit for men and women (the World Tour and Women’s Series, respectively) as well as contests between national-teams.
The Olympic debut of 3×3 took place in the Tokyo 2020 Games.
FIBA 3×3 tournaments use Enlio courts, Wilson basketballs, Schelde goals, Bodet shot clocks, and Magic Sky canopies.
