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In Lithuania and around the world, 3 × 3 basketball is becoming popular as yeast, which has already become an Olympic sport. The representatives of the basketball trio of our country have a good chance to go to Tokyo next year.
You will have to overcome the selection
According to experts, the dominance of the Lithuanian basketball trios is high, so it is realistic that they can enter 2021. Tokyo Olympics.
“I think the probability of Lithuanians playing in Japan is 60-65 percent,” Dainius Novickas, one of the biggest promoters of trio basketball in Lithuania, was optimistic about our chances for the Olympic Landscape in Lithuania.
A total of eight men’s 3 × 3 basketball teams will compete in the Olympics. That right has already been secured by host Serbian, Chinese, Russian and Japanese basketball players.
The best teams in the qualifying competition will receive three places. The main qualifying tournament will be held in Austria next May. Then there will be another tournament for the last ticket.
20 teams will test their strength in this tournament. They are divided into four groups. It is already clear that the national team is in Group B, where it will play against basketball players from the United States, Belgium, New Zealand and South Korea. The next two national teams will advance to the next stage. Then by applying the playoff system, the most capable teams will become clear.
I couldn’t resist the tension
Who will represent Lithuania? For a long time, it was thought that the honor of our country would be defended by Šakiai “Gulbelė” basketball players (Paulius Beliavičius, Šarūnas Vingelis, Aurelijus Pukelis, Marijus Užupis), who achieved victories in the international arena and currently rank sixth extremely high place in the world club rankings.
They have all played well as they have represented the Šakiai “Vytis” club together for several years, competing in the second largest country in the National Basketball League.
Some specialists thought that Gulbelė would outperform all competitors in the Hoptrans 3 × 3 tournament. Some experts predicted that Sakiai players would even surpass Kaunas basketball “Žalgiris” in 3 × 3 duels.
But the reality turned out to be different. Gulbelė did not win either of the first two stages. The Utena Juventus team triumphed in both, represented by the players of the Lithuanian Basketball League (Žygimantas Skučas, Ignas Vaitkus, Gintautas Matulis, Vytautas Šulskis, Darius Tarvydas).
“In my opinion, the Gulbelė basketball players did not cope with the stress. They felt tremendous psychological pressure before this tournament as a lot of people said that Šakiai’s team would bump into all the opponents. If some other teams weren’t there very prepared for this competition, I guess Gulbel would have won.
However, Juventus, Kaunas Tauras district, where Jonas Mačiulis, a member of the Lithuanian indoor basketball team, played, devoted a lot of time and attention to the Palanga tournament. As a result, Gulbele’s losses were not a surprise to me, “says D. Novickas.
J. Mačiulis also runs
The leaders of the Lithuanian 3×3 Basketball Association will decide which basketball players will participate in the decisive Olympic qualifying competition. According to Novick, there may be a camp where about ten players will be invited and then the best one will be chosen.
Only those basketball players participating in 3 × 3 basketball competitions may represent the national teams of the trio. They must play a certain number of tournaments and obtain the required ranking. FIBA did so due to the fact that the national trio teams would not have the brightest basketball aces in the room, who had not played in 3 × 3 competitions before.
J. Mačiulis, who looks solid in the Hoptrans 3×3 tournament, can wear the outfit of the trio. I would gladly do so if I didn’t make it to the national indoor basketball team.
Better known faces also played in the Palanga tournament. Some of them are the brothers Darjušas and Kšštofas Lavrinovičiai. It is true that the team of “Legends”, whose clothes they wear, does not force the mountains. Steponas Babrauskas also helped this team, and D. Novickas, 41, is in the ranks of “Legends.”
Attractive woman
And the women? Unfortunately, so far there are no women’s teams or national teams in our country. Previously, the national team of the Lithuanian youth trio had met for a short time, barely trained, suffered several failures in a row at an international tournament and that’s it.
However, in the words of D. Novickas, the situation should radically change for the better in the near future.
“I’ll take it seriously now. Kamilė Nacickaitė, one of the leaders of the Lithuanian indoor team, saw the men’s fights in Palanga. She really enjoyed that basketball and Camille expressed her desire to play herself. I also spoke with other famous players. Nothing before trying 3 × 3 basketball and Lina Pikčiutė, Kornelija Balčiūnaitė, Santa Baltkojienė (ex Okockytė), Martyna Petrėnaitė.
I will try to gather the women’s U-18, U-23 teams. My dream is that during the next Olympic Games, in Paris in 2024, Lithuania’s honor will be defended by three basketball teams, one hall and two triples, teaches the interlocutor. – This will require even more support from the Basketball Federation. Now I can be happy that both the LKF and the Lithuanian National Olympic Committee are helping us a lot. “
They have become world champions
3 × 3 basketball, played for 10 minutes or up to 21 points, is extremely attractive to spectators. It is a very dynamic sport where there is a constant fight without long pauses.
Here a closer contact is allowed than in traditional basketball, with a ball slightly smaller than in the hall. Competitions are held not only in gyms, but very often where there are a lot of people: on the seashore or lake, in representative squares of the city, large supermarkets, castles.
Triple basketball is becoming increasingly popular in our country. Every weekend, about 80 teams of different age groups participate in the Lithuanian amateur championships.
Representatives of traditional basketball – former LKL Mindaugas Budzinauskas basketball players, Rolandas Matulis, Erikas Kučiauskas, Rolandas Skaisgirys – also actively played in Lithuania three or three years ago. The last three became world champions in 2003. M. Budzinauskas and his partners have also won the Planet Cup competition.
The ass of street basketball is Ovidijus Varanauskas, who defended the honor of Pasvalys’ Milk Stars at the Hoptrans 3 × 3 tournament. In 2014, he won bronze medals with three teammates at the European Championship, where M. Budzinauskas was the coach. In the same year, the Lithuanians ranked fourth in the world championships. In the following years, the basketball trio in Lithuania was hit by a long-overdue crisis. Now this sport is on a big wave.
“I have no doubt that a very strong club tournament will soon appear in Europe, similar to the Euroleague basketball pavilion. Until very recently, many people laughed when they said that trio basketball would be an Olympic sport,” he recalls tireless trio basketball enthusiast D. Novickas.
Author of the text: Vaidas Čeponis (Olympic Panorama)
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