By Rawle Toney in Miami
(Compliments of National Sports Commission & Guyana Lottery)

GUYANA will hoop into action today at the inaugural FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup tournament. Set for Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida, the first-of-its-kind event will conclude on Sunday.

Guyana’s male team will come from Ryan Stephney, Tyron Hamid, Travis Burnett, and Timothy Thompson.
Spain-based professional Joy Adams will lead Jada Mohan, Kesann Charles and Tamara Hunter into action.

The Guyanese women will start the day’s proceedings against Guatemala at 10:40hrs, followed by Jamaica at 12:05hrs.
The top two teams will move on to the Main Draw tomorrow.

The men’s team will hoop into action from 11:05hrs against Guatemala and will close the opening day against Trinidad and Tobago at 12:30hrs
If victorious, the team will move on to play the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

According to FIBA, the event is being conducted in partnership with Vaunt Inc. (Vaunt), a sports and entertainment intellectual property (IP) developmental company that creates and produces alternative competitions and culturally relevant content.

The tournament marks FIBA 3×3’s return to Miami nine years after the city hosted the final of the first-ever FIBA 3×3 World Tour and commences Vaunt’s multi-year relationship as the Local Organising Committee with FIBA for the exclusive rights to the 3×3 AmeriCup in the Americas.

As it is the case for every FIBA 3×3 national team official competition, the event will feature the same number of men and women’s teams, who will play alternatively on the same court in front of the same fans.

Exciting, urban and innovative, 3×3 is inspired by several forms of streetball played worldwide and is considered the world’s number one urban team sport. Steered by FIBA, games see two teams of three players face off on a basketball half-court.

It was played successfully for the first time in international competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and since then has benefited from the launch of a yearly city-based FIBA 3×3 World Tour and national-team FIBA 3×3 World & Continental Cups.

On June 9, 2017, 3×3 was added to the Olympic Programme, starting at the Tokyo 2020 Games.