Busy year for the Romanian leading 3×3 promoter, Sport Arena Streetball

2017 will remain a landmark year in 3×3 basketball history, after the International Olympic Committee decided in June to include this discipline on the Olympic Games’ roster, starting with Tokyo 2020. With a record of 15 events organized in one year in Romania, Sport Arena Streetball, member of the FIBA 3×3 Advisory Board, continues to make a contribution to the development of this discipline, both at national and international level.

3×3 basketball began its journey to the Olympic Games in Bucharest, back in 2013, when Sport Arena Streetball organized the International Olympic Committee’s presentation tournament. The motto launched by the International Basketball Federation, “From the street to the Olympic Games”, turned into reality this year, with Sport Arena Streetball as one of the “pillars that contributed to the development of the discipline, globally” – according to FIBA.

To mark the new status of 3×3 basketball, Sport Arena Streetball, in collaboration with the Romanian Olympic Committee, organized an exhibition event at the Olympic House, in June.  Some of the stars of Romanian sport, Olympic champions and medalists such as Mihai Covaliu – president of the Romanian Olympic Committee, Marian Drăgulescu, Alina Dumitru, Viorica Susanu or Georgeta Andrunache played 3×3 basketball together with the best 3×3 players in Romania.

The number of events organized at national level by Sport Arena Streetball reached a record in 2017 – 15, in nine cities. The national circuit scheduled stops in Bucharest (Park Lake Shopping Center, Politehnica, Băneasa Shopping City), Iaşi (Palas Mall), Suceava (Iuliu Mall), Tulcea (Civic Square), Timişoara (Freedom Square), Constanţa (Perla Mamaia, Casino, City Park Mall), Oradea (Union Square), Mangalia (Touristic Port) and Craiova (Mihai Viteazul Square).

More than 3000 registered players took part in the Sport Arena Streetball tournaments and teams from Bulgaria, Serbia, Turkey, the Republic of Moldova, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Nigeria or Bahrain participated in the stages organized in 2017, in Romania.

The tradition of Raiffeisen Bank Bucharest Challenger was carried on this year with a 6th edition, which again gathered thousands of spectators at what is now “Kilometer Zero” of 3×3 basketball, University Square. The strongest tournament of its kind in Southeast Europe brought on court three of the world’s top five teams, as well as all ten Top 10 players in the FIBA 3×3 World Ranking. 16 teams from 13 countries participated in the event.

Additionally, the members of the Sport Arena Streetball team were truly globe-trotters in 2017, contributing to the organization of several tournaments on the international FIBA 3×3 calendar. Mongolia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and China – in Asia, Togo in Africa and the Netherlands, France, Andorra, Latvia, Hungary and the Czech Republic – in Europe were all covered by Sport Arena Streetball crew.

To mark another first in 2017, Sport Arena Streetball has also organized the maiden FIBA endorsed tournaments in Greece. Those events engaged the strong basketball community in Athens and brought on the court European basketball legends such as Kostas Tsartsaris – the former star of Panathinaikos Athens.

The events organized by Sport Arena Streetball have also helped Romania to consolidate positions in the Nations World Ranking, providing the national teams an easier path towards the World and European Championships, either directly or by granting seeding status in qualifiers. Romania is among the best 10 nations overall in the world at 3×3 basketball (7th place), being on 9th place in men’s ranking, 11th in women’s competition, and 2nd in the boys U 18.

Related posts

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.