3×3 Basketball Europe Cup

Amsterdam was the second stop on the 3x3ballers European tour. This time it was to see the 3×3 Europe Cup which took place over 3 days. 12 men’s and 12 women’s national teams from Europe competed in the arena which was located in the Museumplein sector of the city. Amsterdam will also play host to the 2019 3×3 World Cup. As well as the basketball there was an urban sports festival, Urban Sports Week Amsterdam (USWA), taking place at the same time. This saw hundreds of youngsters taking part in all manner of activities like BMX, break dancing, roller skating and skateboarding. The event gave a glimpse of how 3×3 can be incorporated with other ‘urban style’ activities in a town centre location.

The 3×3 World Cup which took place a few weeks earlier in France, saw two European teams in both the men’s and women’s competitions crowned as the best in world. Both Serbia and Russia were therefore also in attendance at the 3×3 Europe Cup.

The semi-finalists in the women’s competition were from across Europe – Netherlands, Spain, Russia and France. The Russian women repeated their success at the World Cup level and also took the European crown with a 22-14 victory over Spain.

It was notable to see that all four men’s semi-finalists were from Eastern Europe – Latvia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The Serbian men were not able to repeat their World Cup success and were knocked out in the semi-finals by a Latvian buzzer beater. They then beat Latvia 16-13 in a close fought final. Serbia with the world’s number 1 player, Dusan Bulut, also lost the 3rd place game to Ukraine, so missing the medal podium completely.

Check-out the top 10 plays from the tournament.