A Very Early Preview of the 2020 Olympics 3 on 3 Basketball Contest

The playground game is getting the gold, and silver, and bronze, medal treatment

It was announced about a week or so ago that the 2020 Summer Olympics were going to add 3 on 3 basketball. I love love love this idea. I'm so fully on board. I'm beyond giddy that the prospect of this.

3 on 3 is what I play every week when I go play pickup basketball with my friends. Sometimes it may be 4 on 4, if we get 7 or 8 dudes, but usually there is only 6 of us, and we play some good 3 on 3. I hope they do it the same way me and my friends have always done it as well. We play to 11 by 1's and 2's, everything beyond the three point line is worth 2, anything else is 1, we call our own fouls and other stuff, we don't call charges or blocks or anything small like that and you have to win by 2. We also play outside sometimes, and I think it would be cool if they adopt the street ball aspect of 3 on 3, but I'm assuming they will play it indoors on the same floor as they play the 5 on 5 full on basketball in the Olympics.

Now, before I really dig deep into the teams, and who I think will win the gold, silver and bronze, a few ground rules. One, I am assuming that this will be filled with professional basketball players. I'd love if they do it with college players, or even street ball legends, but I'm going to go ahead and just imagine it with the super stars of the current NBA. Second, I'm going to do a USA vs the World type situation, kind of like what they do in the rookies vs sophomores game during the NBA's All Star game festivities. Third, I'm going to try as hard as I can to make these teams fair and try to find some country that could win a medal outside of the US. I'm not saying that the US has the only good players, but they have the most quality players when I was doing research. Some of the best players in the game right now are foreign players, but their countries don't have many other guys that could fill out an entire 3 on 3 team that could truly compete. Finally, lots of players from bordering countries will be lumped together. For example, New Zealand and Australia is just going to be one team. Hence my USA vs the World thing I was talking about. Now, let's get to it.

Lets look at the US first. While doing research, I was thinking of players off the top of my head from the US that could make up a 3 on 3 team. The first players that popped into my head were LeBron, KD, Klay, Steph, Draymond and Kyrie Irving. Yes, I just finished watching the Finals, so of course the players from the 2 teams were filling my brain. Then, I started to think a bit more about some other players that would make up a bunch of Team USA 3 on 3 teams. Guys like Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Damian Lillard, Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Paul George, Boogie, Gordon Hayward, Chris Paul, Mike Conley, Jimmy Butler, John Wall, Brad Beal and Hassan Whiteside, just to name a few. My next mission was breaking these teams up into 3 man tandems.

My "first" squad for Team USA is KD, Steph and Kawhi. They would be the perfect 3 on 3 team. KD is 7 feet tall, so he has length to defend bigger guys, and he can space the court. Steph is a wizard with the ball, a good passer and the greatest shooter ever. And Kawhi, he is one of the best all around players in the league, and he is the best defender in all of basketball. This is my gold standard team. Now I had to break up the other guys to make more 3 on 3 teams.

Next up I have to have LeBron, and he'd team up with Paul George and Anthony Davis. This is a great, scary good 3 on 3 team. They don't have the shooters my first team has, but they have some big dudes that play defense and can score at the rim with ease. They'd be a tough out, possibly a gold medal winner with ease.

The next USA team I'd put out there has Kyrie, Klay and Draymond. I like to lump the Warriors guys together obviously. This team would be very good. Draymond can guard everyone, Kyrie can score at the rim at will and Klay is almost on Kawhi's level with defense and he's a better shooter. 

Another USA team would have Harden, Boogie and DeRozan. This team isn't on the level of the other teams, but Harden is a great shooter and passer, DeRozan is a great mid range shooter and Boogie is the best center in the game right now. They would be tough and physical and get into other teams heads.

I have to put Westbrook on a team, so I'd pair him with Hassan Whiteside, for the defense and rebounding, and Gordon Hayward, because he can hit the open shot when given the opportunity. Westbrook needs to be on a team where he controls the ball, and I feel like this is the perfect squad for him.

My final 3 man squad for the US is small, but feisty. I'd put Chris Paul, a natural leader and a tough guy with Jimmy Butler, great defender and great creator and John Wall, who might be the most explosive, and definitely fastest player in the NBA. This is a smaller team but they'd put up a fight.

See what I'm saying about USA and all these 3 man squads. I left a lot of guys out, and this is still a completely loaded group of players. These are the best of the best. Before I get into medals though, let's look at the teams the World could put out there.

First off, let's look at Team USA's biggest competition the past few Olympics, Spain. They have some good, great players, but they are getting older. You'd have to pair up the Gasol brothers, then you could put Serge Ibaka and Ricky Rubio on this team. It's a good squad, I just don't think it is medal worthy. Pau is old, Marc is great, but not as great as say a Anthony Davis or Boogie Cousins, Ibaka looks to be past his prime and Rubio is great with the ball, but he cannot shoot.

Then I thought maybe we could pair up Argentina with the Dominican and they could compete. These 2 places give us guys like Manu Ginobli, Luis Scola, Al Horford, Karl Anthony-Towns, Carlos Delfino and Charlie Villanueva. Towns and Horford are awesome, and I love Ginobli, but there is no way these guys are beating any of the top three USA squads. They'd fight, and Towns could win a game himself, but I just don't see the Argentine-Dominican team having a shot at a medal.

Then we get to Brazil. They have some players. Guys like Nene, Anderson Varajeo, Leandro Barbosa, Tiago Splitter and Lucas Nogueira. These are some good guys, but they have no ball handlers and no real shooters. Barbosa would be the point guard, and he can sometimes get his own shot, but he is so much better as a role player than the focal point. Every other player is a big man, and they would be easily neutralized in a 3 on 3 tournament.

Team Italy has Danillo Gallinari, but he would team up with one of the biggest busts ever in Andrea Bargnani, and journey man Marco Bellinelli. They have shooting, and guys that can get to the rim, but they have no ball handler, so they are screwed from the start.

Next up, I'm going to glomb together Slovenia, Serbia, Latvia, Turkey and Russia, a neo athletic Eastern Bloc. These 4 countries provide us with some good players. The powers that be would have a pool of guys to choose from like, Timofey Mozgov, Alex Len, Enes Kanter, Zaza Pachulia, Ersan Illiyasova, Nikola Jokic, Goran Dragic and Kristaps Porzingis. First off, they need to build this team around Porzingis. He has the length and the shot to make it tough for other teams. Then, I'd take Nikola Jokic, great passer, rebounder and scorer and Goran Dragic, perfect point guard. This team could cause some problems, but in the long run, I think they would place 5th, at best.

Team Germany could be good. You have Dirk, Dennis Schroder, but then you have to pick between Paul Zipser and Chris Kaman. Those are not all timers that can cause problems for other teams. Also, Dirk is getting older and older. Schroder could cause problems, but he is not on the level of some of the other point guards I have mentioned.

Lithuania, Team USA's old rival, is not near the level of a lot of other teams. Sure, you have Jonas Valenciunas, Donatas Montejunas, Linas Kleiza and Domantos Sabonis. No ball handlers and no shooters. They'd be dead in the water.

Unfortunately for Greece, the only guy they have is Giannis Antetekoumpo, and while he is incredibly awesome, and the possible face of the NBA in the future, he would get no help from his country.

The final three teams I have, I think could possibly medal, if put in the right situation.

First we have France. They have a point guard in Tony Parker, thy have length in Rudy Gobert, they have passing in Boris Diaw and they have guys that can create in Nic Batum and Evan Fournier. They'd have to have Gobert and Parker as their main guys, then I'd probably put Batum out there. This is a decent team that could medal. Unfortunately for France, Tony Parker is old and coming off injury. He'd get exposed on defense.

Team Canada can field a very good, pretty young team as well. They have guys like Andrew Wiggins, Nik Stauskas, Tristan Thompson, Jamal Murray, Corey Joseph and Trey Lyles. These are some good guys that can form a pretty good 3 on 3 team. Wiggins is the center piece, then I'd put Tristan Thompson and Corey Joseph out there. Wiggins is an explosive athlete who's jump shot is only getting better. Tristan Thompson is the perfect "dirty work" player and Corey Joseph learned in the Spurs system, so he is a very decent, smart basketball player. They could cause a lot of problems.

Finally, I think the combination of Australia and New Zealand would have the best chance to medal of all the other countries not name USA. They could put Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, Ben Simmons, Dante Exum and Steven Adams. Those are some good players, if healthy. Bogut has the rim protection, so does Adams. Ben Simmons is an excellent passer and attacks the rim with ease. Patty Mils is a great outside shooter. Dante Exum is a tall point guard that is only getting better. Dellavedova is the only guy that doesn't bear mentioning. If I were in charge of this team, I'd put Simmons, Steven Adams and Patty Mills out there. They give them the best shot at a medal.

With all this being said, I still think, no matter how much I tried, that the US would win all three medals. I laid out the best case for Canada, France and New Zealand/Australia, but they just don't have the star power that the US teams have. The other countries I mentioned, they have no shot, not even the 4 country grouping I had that had Porzingis as the main guy. So, my Bronze medal would go to the squad of Kyrie, Klay and Draymond. The silver I'd give to LeBron, Anthony Davis and Paul George. Yes LeBron is the runner-up once again. And the Gold, that goes to Steph, KD and Kawhi. They are just too good everywhere to get beaten.

I am so excited to watch this in 3 years, and hopefully they go with NBA players. This 3 on 3 tournament is going to be loads of fun, and I cannot wait to see how it turns out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

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There Never Was and Never Will Be Another Craig Sager

So, 2016 continues to be a real kick in the ass. We lost another long time legend last night, Craig Sager.

HEY 2016, STOP TAKING GREAT PEOPLE FROM US! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, JESUS CHRIST!

I have been an NBA fan pretty much my entire life. From childhood, to teenage years, to college life, and now adulthood, I have watched the NBA. The one constant, besides the teams, throughout all this watching of games, has been Craig Sager. As long as I can remember, he was always there, on the sideline, ready to give some great insight and do a wonderful coach interview.

I remember watching, the first time I was a T'Wolves fan, all the great interviews between Sager and Kevin Garnett. Garnett was one of the first people to give Sager a "hard time" about his clothing, which I will touch on in a moment. You could tell right off the bat that Garnett, who is a known recluse when it comes to reporters, had a great rapport with Sager. That was when I instantly became a fan of Sager's. The fact that he could get Garnett to open up like he did, meant to me, that he must be a special reporter and person. He never seemed like so many other reporters that just wanted a story, hot take or something that people would talk about in the national media the next day. He was a guy that just genuinely loved what he was doing, and he loved NBA basketball.

There is no reporter, except for Howard Cosell, that got the same kind of love and respect that Craig Sager got from pro athletes and his peers. Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Chris Berman, Tim Kurkjan, Buster Olney, they all wish that they had the gift that Craig Sager had. Sager was one of a kind.

This was even true when it came to his clothes, told you I'd get to it. He, I do not know how long ago, started to wear these very loud and colorful jackets on the sideline. The first time I saw one of these it blew my mind. I thought, what in the hell is he doing, but the more he wore them, and he wore a ton of them, the more I, not only accepted, but liked them. I looked forward to seeing what kind of sport coat he would be wearing while covering a game. It became something that everyone that watched the NBA talked about. I would go over to friends houses, talk about the game, but we also talked about Sager's coat. It was always a topic of conversation. This was just another one of his ways of standing out from the crowd. He truly was one of a kind.

The more I read yesterday, after his death was announced, the more I found out that the colorful jackets had meaning. It made Sager and the person he was interviewing stand out. He wore them because he liked them, not just as a fashion statement. He continued to wear them because so many people talked about it. The colorful sport coat became just another great thing that added to his awesomeness.

His reporting didn't just start and stop with the NBA either. He covered baseball for a long time. In fact, if you look back at videos of Hank Aaron hitting his 715th home run, and I just found this out yesterday, you can see Sager on the field with a tape recorder in hand, ready to interview Aaron. He was always prepared, no matter how big the situation. He also covered the Olympics for NBC. He was the absolute best part of NBC's coverage of the Olympics. For the most part, NBC stinks with their Olympic stuff, but not Craig Sager. He was worth watching. He was always good. He was always giving out the right information. He owned the Olympic coverage.

When Craig Sager was diagnosed with leukemia over a year ago, I, amongst many other people, hoped that it could be cured. At one point, it even looked like his cancer was in remission. But, it unfortunately came back, and it was a death sentence. Even with this sentence being handed down to him, Sager handled it as only he could. He never stopped smiling. He even continued to work. He did his first NBA Finals last year, and it was one of the coolest moments in sports history to see him cover a great Finals matchup. He was extremely sick, but you would never know it from the way he handled himself. He had his sport coat, his knowledge, and his trademark smile while doing sideline interviews. Seeing this actually gave me hope that he may be getting better. I mean, my own mother overcame cancer, so I thought that Sager could too.

But, even though we all knew it was coming, the news of his death yesterday shook me to my core. I was absolutely shocked when my phone buzzed with the news that Sager had passed away at the age of 65. That is way too young for someone that was filled with, and lived his life, to its full potential. I have loved all the tributes that have been coming out since yesterday. I feel awful for Rachel Nichols, who is an excellent NBA reporter for ESPN, one of the few good people there, because she was a colleague of his, and she had to announce his death on live TV. That was a tough, heart breaking watch. The guys on TNT last night celebrated his life. That was incredible. They told stories and talked about all the good times they had with Sager. It was a celebration of his life. The pre-game warm up shirts that the Bucks and Warriors wore last night were great. I'm sure most teams will start doing the same thing. Greg Poppovich's, I do not know if it was pre-game or post game press conference, where he only talked about the greatness that was Craig Sager, was absolutely touching and phenomenal. I have been moved by what I've seen for the last 16 hours.

Craig Sager was one of a kind, and he will be missed so much. He has been in my life as long as I can remember. He is my version of Howard Cosell, only I think that Craig Sager was better at his job. I will miss him so much, and that was very prevalent when I watched some games last night, and he wasn't there. It is going to be quite strange for a long time not seeing him on the sideline. Hopefully we get someone that can be 1/4 as great as he was, but there will never, ever be another person like Craig Sager. Never. Rest In Peace.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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