Preparing for the FIBA3x3 World Cup 2025

It's going to be a busy week, so better be prepared. Hopefully this newsletter will give you a good starting point.

The best moment of 3x3 season is now

World Tour, Women’s Series, World Cup, BIG3 - you can watch streetball 24x7, and we certainly do! In between, we produce 3x3 superhero graphics, visualizing the biggest 3x3 stars. Introducing this week: The Maestro

Thanks to all readers, especially subscribers, you rock! If you like our work, please share it with your network. Remember, we are on X too, and our FB group would benefit from your wisdom!

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Interesting facts about 3x3 basketball

Streetball, music and movies never plays in isolation, just the opposite to the best BIG3 player.

DJ Rae Rae

Streetball and music always go together, we wrote about it some time ago. Now it’s time to make a next step and present you the music created by one of the best woman playing 3x3 - Rae Lin D’Alie:

Full interview with the creator and the story behind it.

Communities around the world

Super interesting documentary “Plena, Heart & Legacy: The Rise of 3x3 Basketball in Puerto Rico” provides a fantastic look into how 3x3 basketball has become a significant part of Puerto Rican culture and identity. Definitely worth seeing.

BIG3

Season 8 kicked off with a bang in Chicago! Joe Johnson scored 30 of his team's 50 points, and Dwight Howard got into a fight with Lance Stephenson.

Some things remain unchanged, such as the fact that Iso Joe is the best player in BIG3.

In the Detroit Amps vs. Chicago Triplets game, he scored 60% of his team's points, casually adding 10 rebounds and 3 assists. He even threw in a “four”.

We would love to see him in FIBA3x3 World Tour. He could be better than Michael Hicks.

FIBA 3x3 World Tour

Happy to see some fresh blood in pro tour and our power ranking as well.

Week summary

Vienna Masters was the most competitive tournament of the World Tour series this season. All the best teams were there.

The usual favorites won, but we also saw some new teams show their strength as they fight for their place at the top. In Vienna, both Spaniards and Germans, played really well.

But let's give credit where credit is due. The Serbs from Ub, as is their custom, started the tournament slowly, even sleepily. In their first match, against London, they were already losing 1:9 and ultimately suffered a heavy defeat at the start. However, they picked up momentum from match to match, as is their custom. Sometimes we get the impression that after all these years, they can win any* match with skill, experience, teamwork, or simply willpower - an incredible team. Playing under the guidance of a true Maestro.

*does not apply to the Olympic Games

The Spaniards proved to be a revelation not only in the qualifying round. Playing in the main tournament, they defeated the very strong Toulouse team, and Guim Expósito is definitely a name to remember.

Another star of the tournament was a German player whom you may have already heard of. If not, it's worth catching up:

Fabian Giessmann is like Shaquille O'Neal 3×3, right after entering the league. The difference is that he's great at shooting from a distance.

#3x3PowerRanking

Top 19 teams in the world, in our opinion. Since the previous one, we added two.

Format: position, team, position change, current FIBA3x3 ranking (June 18th 2025), reason.

1. UB, +2, 1, three tournaments in a row.

2. Amsterdam, -, 4, still without a win.

3. Toulouse, -2, 2, Vienna was tough and ugly for them.

4. Miami, -, 3, need a little bit more size?

5. Raudondvaris, -, 6, looks better from week to week.

6. Chongming, -, 9, took a break.

7. Liman, -, 7, resting.

8. Hangzhou, -, 16, almost there, lessons taken.

9. Vienna, -, 5, 2 losses at home by one possession, painful!

10. Bonn, new, 15, expected to reach top 5 soon.

11. Riffa, -1, 8, two games in Vienna, both lost by one point.

12. Partizan, -1, 10, bad week.

13. London, +1, 11, demolished Ub in Vienna.

14. Ulaanbaatar, -2, 12, probably training harder than ever.

15. Lausanne, -2, 14, it still doesn’t click.

16. Barcelona, new, 24, they play nice and effective streetball.

17. Utrecht, -2, 18, still looking for a synergy between great players.

18. Shinagawa, -2, 21, quiet week.

19. Carolina, -2, 17, played in the movie only (see above).

Predictions

Ulaanbaatar Masters - big chance for many teams to approach top level, as the best will be preparing for the World Cup. Teams to watch: Carolina, Bonn, Ulaanbaatar.

There won’t be a better opportunity for Riffa team to finally win something this season. If they will survive Serbian (under Chinese and Quatar flags) attacks in the group phase they may advance at least to semifinals.

However, our take is, that the winner will be decided between Bonn, Chongming and Liman.

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3x3 basketball national teams

The winners of the entire 2025 FIBA3x3 season will be decided next week. Who are our candidates to win and become future stars?

Women’s Series is running on all cylinders

Two WS tournaments in one week! The first one (in Vienna) went according to our prediction. Netherlands win it all, again. But the second one, recently played in Mongolia, was much more interesting. The final game decided in the last seconds was a fantastic game…

…and the final standings are super interesting, especially in the context of the next section of this newsletter:

FIBA3x3 World Cup predictions

Three best teams from each group will advance to the next round…

…and we think, that in men’s category these are the ones to bet on:

• Pool A: Serbia, Germany, Australia

• Pool B: USA, Latvia, Mongolia

• Pool C: France, Austria, Puerto Rico

• Pool D: Netherlands, Lithuania, Spain

Women teams with the highest chances to advance, in our opinion:

• Pool A: Australia, China, Poland

• Pool B: Netherlands, USA, Japan

• Pool C: France, Canada, Latvia

• Pool D: Spain, Mongolia, Germany

Who is going to take medals home? Almost impossible to say, but we think that men quarterfinals may be played by Serbia, Latvia, France and Netherlands. Women top 4: USA, Spain, Australia and Netherlands again. Let’s see…

Non-obvious players with superstar potential

World Cup, as usual, is the event where stars are born. Here is the list of players you might not have heard of before, but whom you should definitely watch during the Ulaanbaatar championship::

Dillon Stith, Australia, Asia Cup MVP:

Titas Janusevicius, Lithuania:

Antonio Ralat, Puerto Rico:

Alex Wilson, Australia, Asia Cup MVP this and past year:

Klaudia Papp, Hungary:

Fuyuko Takahashi, Japan:

That’s all for this week; we hope you have enough to digest before an even more intense week. Thanks for reading!

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