Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James knows exactly who he would like to have as teammates in a 3-on-3 contest — Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.
However, when asked who he would pick from today’s NBA players to be on his team, James tells Janie McCauley and Josh Dubow of The Associated Press that he isn’t sure.
“I don’t know, I have to think about it,” James said.
Like Jordan and Magic, James won’t be participating in the new Olympic event, but he did say that “it’s great for basketball.”
“It’s great for basketball,” James said. “For us to be able to add another category to the Olympics, another basketball category, I think it’s pretty great. I haven’t seen the full layout of how they plan on executing it … are they going to use NBA guys, are they going to use college guys. I’m not quite sure.
“I’m not very good in a 3-on-3 thing. I’m more of a 5-on-5 guy. I stay out of the 1-on-1 matchups during our practice, the 2-on-2 and the 3-on-3s. So probably not. I probably won’t be a part of the 3-on-3 matchup.”
The new Olympic event, which will consist of eight men’s and eight women’s teams, was recently added by the International Olympic Committee. However, it is still unclear as to what teams are selected and how they will qualify.
“They don’t want just the basketball powers to compete in 3-on-3,” said USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley. “FIBA will get together and figure out how teams will qualify. They will definitely want to reward countries that have been doing a lot of 3-on-3 activities.”
The rules for the up-tempo 3-on-3 competition are quite a bit different than normal, 5-on-5 play. With one 10-minute period, the 3-on-3 tournament will have a much faster pace. If a team scores 21 points in less than 10 minutes, the game is over. If the game is tied after the alotted 10 minutes, it goes into overtime, with the first team scoring two points in OT being awarded the victory.
