The way to Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Challenger 2015

The fourth edition of Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Challenger will take place on 15-16 August, in Bucharest and will reunite some of the best Romanian teams together with top teams from all over the world. A total of 16 teams will take part in the tournament. According to FIBA regulations for Challenger tournaments, at least three teams should have participated in the FIBA 3×3 World Tour the previous year. Other teams have to earn a ticket to the Challenger winning one of the qualifying events named FIBA 3×3 Satellite (can be…

Read More

Romania and Russia, the first ever 3×3 basketball European Champions

Romania’s men and Russia’s women were crowned inaugural 3×3 basketball European champions as both sides recorded victories over Slovenia in the finals at University Square in Bucharest. In the men’s competition, the hosts delighted the more than 1,000 fans in attendance by squeezing past their determined opponents 19-16 in the decider. Both sides traded baskets throughout, but as the clocked ticked down Bogdan Popescu stepped up to be the local hero as he landed a crucial basket to give Romania a decisive lead which they managed to hold on to.…

Read More

The third edition of Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Challenger is ready to go

For the third consecutive year, Bucharest will host the strongest 3×3 basketball tournament from South-East of Europe, Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Challenger. During two days, 26-27 of July, 12 of the best European teams, together with the best four local teams will battle for a place in FIBA 3×3 World Tour a total money prize of 5000 USD. The winner will get 4000 USD and will qualify for the FIBA 3×3 World Tour Prague Masters, while the second place will receive 1000 USD. Teams from Albania, Andorra, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia,…

Read More

New rules for 3×3, tested in Bucharest for the first time

Called “Mecca of 3×3 basketball” by Sports Illustrated, Bucharest was the host, last weekend, of the first tournament played by the new rules of the game announced by FIBA a few days ago. Featuring some of the best Romanian players, including World Tour and 3×3 EuroTour stars Angel Santana, Catalin Bordei and Alin Spahiu, the Raiffeisen Streetball by Sport Arena was included in a urban sports festival called Street Heroes and had a massive success. Over 4000 people packed an old hangar of a dismantled airplane motor factory during the one…

Read More

Basket 3×3 Novi Sad, champions at Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Challenger

Team Basket 3×3 Novi Sad, from Serbia, with three World Champions from Athens 2012 in the roster, won the second edition of the Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Challenger by Sport Arena Streetball. The Serbians came from behind in the final with the Romanian team Salajean Hustlers and won in the end with 11-9. They received a 4000 USD prize and a spot in the FIBA 3×3 World Tour Prague. The Hustlers led by six points after five minutes of playing, but they couldn’t keep the pace. They missed a lot in…

Read More

IOC official to observe Wizz Air Sport Arena Streetball

International Olympic Committee (IOC) Olympic Programme Commission member Walter Sieber has been confirmed to attend an International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Europe 3×3 EuroTour event in Bucharest next month ahead of the discipline’s Rio 2016 inclusion review. Sieber (pictured left), a Vancouver 2010 Board member and former Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) vice-president, will attend the World Tour qualifier as part of the IOC’s observers programme – which was first put in place ahead of the Sochi 2014 programme review – to examine disciplines and events for the Rio 2016 Olympic sports programme. The…

Read More

Santana, a true ambassador of 3×3 basketball

The fourth episode of FIBA 3×3 World Tour 2012 series (WATCH IT HERE) focuses on one of the most charismatic 3×3 basketball players, Angel Santana, from Romania. Well known for his abilities on the court and also for the joy and the fun he brings on and off the court, Santana tells his life story and reveals the root of his lifestyle. „Organized 5×5 basketball has been a bit like a job to me. It’s doing a job I love, which not everyone can say, but at the end of…

Read More

Sport Arena Streetball – The Story

Two wooden boards, with fragile rims. Two poor benches, with some parts missing. A weather-bitten concrete court. And 20-25 people just waiting to get on the court to show their skills. It was a place where tough battles were carried every day and only the strongest used to survive, until their last drop of sweat or until the dark made any shot impossible. This particular scenery brought out a huge amount of passion, despite the poor conditions.. It was simply about playing basketball no matter what! Almost a decade has…

Read More

3×3 basketball won the elections in Bucharest

In a weekend when the local elections took place in Romania, a few thousands youngsters voted for 3×3 basketball as their main candidate. More than 800 players, registered in only 24 hours on the previous week, followed by almost 3000 fans, came to express their vote and their feelings about the sport they love at Sport Arena Streetball, the only 3×3 championship in Romania and one of the few in the world. The second stage of the 2012 regular season was hot for a few more reasons than the weather,…

Read More

Sport Arena Streetball, basketball and fun in Bucharest

The Sport Arena Streetball Championship, a FIBA 3×3 World Tour Qualifier, scheduled the first of its five tournaments last weekend, and the weather was not a good teammate at all. But if the rain never stopped for almost three days in Bucharest, so was the basketball. A gym, situated near the Sport Arena Streetball state of the art outdoor facility, was the perfect place to make the deadliest crossover on the rain and to keep playing no matter what. And the show went on and on, from Friday afternoon until late Sunday…

Read More