IOC adds 3-on-3 basketball to the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics

Olympic rings.
(Image credit: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images)

Everyone's favorite schoolyard game to play when your flaky friends are being flaky, three-on-three basketball, has been approved as an Olympic sport and will be in competition at the 2020 games in Tokyo, CBS Sports writes. "The hope behind making 3-on-3 an Olympic sport is to really open up Olympic basketball to parts of the world that struggle to field 12-person teams in 5-on-5 competition," Jim Tooley, the chief executive officer of USA Basketball, told Bleacher Report. "3-on-3 ... [is] much more accessible. And it's a totally different style of game. It's an incredibly fast-paced sprint."

Matt Santangelo, the executive director of the largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world, Hoopfest, added: "Shooting is really at a premium in 3-on-3, more so than in the NBA, because in these games you can't hide on the floor. If you're open, you absolutely must hit the shot. If you don't, you lose."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.