Red Bull Will Host USA 3×3 Olympic Qualifiers

USA Basketball has announced a multiyear partnership with Red Bull North America to build an elite pathway for men’s and women’s players who have a goal of competing at the highest levels of 3×3 basketball.

3×3 basketball will be featured at the Olympics for the first time in event history at the 2020 Olympics in Japan.

Red Bull will host 23 qualifying tournaments across the country under the newly created Red Bull 3X series to identify the eight athletes who could potentially represent USA Basketball at the 2020 Olympics.

The winning teams at these qualifiers will compete to accumulate enough individual FIBA points with the goal of moving on to the Red Bull USA Basketball 3X Regionals in the Fall of 2019, and then to the Red Bull USA Basketball 3X Nationals in March 2020, which will be used to select the USA men’s and women’s 3×3 national teams.

“I think there’s a lot of excitement because it creates an opportunity for an athlete that may not have been thinking that this is a pathway for them,” said Jim Tooley, CEO of USA Basketball. “It opens up a door to a whole new generation of players that have an opportunity to wear U.S.A. across their chest and be a part of the Olympic games.”

Red Bull Media House, an award-winning media company, will create original storytelling with USA Basketball to shine a light on the 3×3 game, qualifiers and players, and celebrate the journey as the sport makes its debut at the Olympics.

“Storytelling is a big part of this process,” Tooley said. “I think it’s important to make the public aware of this, more importantly the players, so that we can have a larger pool in helping us qualify for the Olympics. The qualifiers and the platform that Red Bull is providing here just amplifies the opportunity for each of these players and I think there’ll be some amazing stories that come out of this whole journey.”

The first-ever Red Bull 3X qualifier will take place in Detroit, Michigan on June 22, 2019.