In No Offseason, The Athletic follows the paths of women’s basketball players after their WNBA seasons’ end and their travels begin. From Turkey, Israel, Italy, Czech Republic, Mexico and even here in the U.S., our reporters tell the stories of these players as they chase their dreams and try to shape the future of the WNBA.
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Veronica Burton was ostensibly a pass-first point guard in college, as she totaled 1.25 assists for every field goal she made during her Northwestern career. That ratio doubled to 2.5 assists per field goal as a rookie with the Dallas Wings. But when Burton looks back at her first WNBA season, that balance seems a little off. She notes her occasional lack of aggression when she was too focused on setting up her teammates rather than looking for a shot.
A possession from Dallas’ penultimate regular-season game on Aug. 12 against Phoenix illustrates the mindset Burton is looking to change. The Wings won the tip, and their rookie point guard surveyed the floor. But she held the rock for too long while sizing up the defense, which allowed her teammate to get trapped and then force a bad pass. Burton didn’t even give up the ball until half of the shot clock has elapsed. In the moment, it was clear the offense was running too slowly. A few months later, she had a new frame of reference for her play, because in three-on-three, with a 12-second shot clock, that possession would be a turnover before she even passed the ball.
Like many of her fellow WNBA players, Burton has recently entered the world of three-on-three basketball. She competed in the U23 World Cup in October alongside Indiana Fever rookies Lexie Hull and Emily Engstler. NaLyssa Smith replaced her frontcourt teammate Engstler at the AmeriCup in November, creating a total of four 2022 first-round picks who are now part of the three-on-three ecosystem. Burton has discovered that there is much she can learn from the increasingly popular streetball game — like being more offensive-minded — that can translate to her professional five-on-five career.
“At any time with basketball, especially with the skills that you develop, and just kind of reading the defense, it can easily translate from three-on-three to five-on-five,” Burton told The Athletic. “So that’s honestly another thing that I was hoping to happen, just continuing to find ways to create on the offensive end. And I think it really did help even my one-on-one defense because you really don’t have as much help side in three-on-three, just not as many people to rotate. So I think that also will help and hopefully continue to translate when I go back to five-on-five.”
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That’s an attitude USA Basketball hopes is prevalent among the WNBA’s next generation as the national team builds its three-on-three foundation alongside a historically dominant five-on-five program. Three-on-three is the wave, and the American women are on top of it.
As more WNBA players reject the overseas option during their offseason, they are seeking out alternatives to fulfill their basketball appetites. Since Team USA won the first three-on-three gold medal at the 2020 Olympics, this route has become increasingly appealing. Players can work on their games in a controlled environment without wearing themselves out, travel as part of international competition and put themselves on the radar of the national program.
Tokyo created proof of concept for three-on-three as an alternate pathway for international basketball for the WNBA’s best, and players are taking advantage.
“I didn’t realize the amount of people that had never seen it before until the Olympics,” Kelsey Plum, one of the inaugural gold medalists, said. “And so to have that impact of like, we were one of the funnest sports to watch at the Olympics … (and) people were like, whoa what is this? (They) tuned in, that was really cool. That was really cool to see. So I would say probably the impact it had back at home (stood out).”
That impact is reflected in the current crop of young stars who are working to make their names in three-on-three, like Burton and the Fever trio.
The idea of playing basketball three-on-three is hardly new, but it really picked up steam in the U.S. during the 1990s with Hoop It Up and the Gus Macker tournaments. According to USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley, that’s when FIBA caught three-on-three fever. Beach volleyball had just become an Olympic sport in 1996, and the worldwide basketball federation was looking for its version of beach volleyball, an edgier version of basketball that could reach more athletes around the globe.
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“What it can also do is help us get the sport in parts of the world where it would not otherwise be,” Tooley said. “And you’re seeing that happen today where the Latvian men have been amazing. Mongolia, Hungary, all these other countries that really don’t have your traditional five-on-five teams, they’re having some really good success with three-on-three.
“But from when FIBA got the bug in the ’90s, it took about more than a decade to actually get it to the level of international competition. And it first happened in the youth Olympic games in 2010. And so it got in front of the IOC, and that was the true launching pad for it to be a serious discipline on the international calendar, with the idea of getting it from the streets to the Olympics. That was FIBA’s slogan during that time.”
Thus birthed the formal version of three-on-three, a game that is played to 21 or for 10 minutes — whichever comes first. Traditional 2-pointers are worth one point, 3s are worth two, and all the action is contained in the half-court with a 12-second shot clock. FIBA has particularly tapped into the streetball nature of the sport. They often stage events at pop-up courts in downtown metros, pumping in as much lighting and music as possible. Live DJs are a staple during the action, and nicknames are encouraged.
FIBA takes the sport seriously — it wouldn’t be an Olympic event without dedication from national federations around the world — but the goal is also to make it a party and literally bring in a new subset of fans off the street.
“All of these different rules are to make it faster, more fun, more entertaining,” FIBA three-on-three broadcaster Jordan Ligons Robinson said. “I think entertainment is definitely a word that comes to mind. … I feel like they’re trying to promote it as, hey you like basketball; it’s a similar thing, but come have more fun over here. This is three-on-three.”
Adding to the trophy case! 💪🇺🇸
Sights & sounds from the #3x3AmeriCup in Miami 👇 pic.twitter.com/G5UhGSvAqT
— USA Basketball 3×3 (@usab3x3) November 9, 2022
Several players on the outskirts of the WNBA have made their way to FIBA events, including Cierra Burdick, Lauren Cox, Blake Dietrick and Linnae Harper. College players were the first to really establish a three-on-three presence for the U.S. Once the International Olympic Committee started eyeing three-on-three, that was the cue for the U.S. to get involved. Tooley says USA Basketball hired its first three-on-three staffer in 2012. The first World Cup took place that year, and an American team of Skylar Diggins-Smith, Bria Hartley, Chiney Ogwumike and Ann Strother won the inaugural gold. The national team recruited younger players who were able to take part while three of the gold medalists (all but Strother) were still in college when they competed because the sport hadn’t yet achieved the legitimacy to attract pros.
Collegians continued to make up the bulk of the American rosters during the 2010s, aided by the fact that FIBA held an annual U18 three-on-three World Cup. The USA had little difficulty attracting the best talent and continued to recruit superstar college players like Diamond DeShields, Brianna Turner, Arike Ogunbowale, Katie Lou Samuelson, Jewell Loyd, Tiffany Mitchell, Napheesa Collier and Sabrina Ionescu for its events. Even though most American players grow up with the dream of playing five-on-five, those who explored three-on-three still found an opportunity to grow their games.
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“I do think they find a lot of value in it,” Tooley said. “(Ogwumike) was the first person to say that. She said, listen, I love it because you have so many more touches and you know, with only four players, you’re playing the whole time. You’re always engaged. And I think it helps from a development standpoint. You can’t hide in three-on-three. You’re gonna have to defend and you’re gonna have to be productive offensively because if you’re not, you can’t have the opponents guarding the other two three-on-two.”
Ogwumike’s experience of getting more touches and expanding her offensive capabilities has a direct through-line to Burton. And in the middle of those two was an important inflection point for three-on-three: the involvement of WNBA players.
The U.S. was content to send amateurs to World Cups, but when an Olympic gold medal was on the line, the best of the best had to take part. And because of the country’s success during the early iterations of three-on-three (five U18 World Cup titles), professionals were ready to join. For the Tokyo Olympics, USA Basketball brought in Stefanie Dolson and Plum, national team mainstays who had regularly participated at the youth level but weren’t in consideration for the 2020 five-on-five team, and two WNBA up-and-comers in Allisha Gray and Samuelson, who caught COVID-19 before the Games and was replaced by Jackie Young.
Any chance three-on-three had of gaining a foothold in the U.S. rested with those four players. They delivered, and then some. Not only did they win gold, but each of their careers took dramatic jumps upon returning from the Olympics. Dolson won her first WNBA title in 2021 and sealed the deal for Chicago with two buckets in the final two minutes. Plum and Young followed that up with a championship in 2022 — Plum earning first-team all-WNBA and All-Star Game MVP honors while Young was the league’s Most Improved Player.
“I think first and foremost, in order to play three-on-three, you have to have a great level of fitness,” Plum said. “So it’s a great way to stay in shape and still get good basketball. I would say also it’s very good for development. It’s fast-paced. You have to make quick decisions. You can’t really lean on anyone offensively or defensively, you kind of have to figure it out, which is one of the biggest reasons for the development.”
That foursome has moved on from three-on-three. All four were in the five-on-five national team pool for the 2022 World Cup; Dolson, Gray, and Plum were on the roster for the qualifying team, and Plum was on the team that captured gold in Australia. They’ve created an opening for a new era of three-on-three players, but the path of their successors will be more complicated. The current Olympic qualification process is a years-long affair where players rack up individual points at every competition in which they compete. The U.S. can’t simply select a team of the first four players cut from the five-on-five team; the individuals who are eligible for the Paris Games are the ones who are high enough on the leaderboard, and the points start accumulating now.
As Tooley says, FIBA did not design this system with the USA in mind and he suggests the federation isn’t too broken up about it. “In five-on-five they’re tired about writing the story about how the U.S. women are winning their seventh Olympic gold medal and we haven’t lost in the World Cup since 2006; that’s not great for them. This was the level of playing field that they needed to make the sport interesting worldwide.”
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To wit, on the men’s side, NBA players are prohibited from leaving their teams for international play, forcing the national team to look elsewhere for its rosters. On the women’s side, WNBA players are permitted to miss games for the national team, but some events are during the offseason when players are all over the world. Choosing to play three-on-three isn’t a one-off for a singular tournament, it’s a commitment for the next two years.
For this new foursome, the opportunity to represent USA Basketball and get on the inside track for Paris is too good to pass up, even if it means clearing their calendars for a few more events in the lead-up to Paris. Burton, Hull and Smith are all staying stateside during the offseason. Nonetheless, that’s not the only disadvantage Team USA is working with. They aren’t playing as much three-on-three as some of their international counterparts. This country’s basketball infrastructure is built to support five-on-five. While other nations have players who are involved in only three-on-three, it doesn’t make financial sense for the best American athletes to skip out on the WNBA and NBA.
“We are blessed to have millions of players playing the sport, and those that are playing at the highest level, the athletes that we are interested in for international competition, they have a very robust ecosystem in five-on-five where it pays you good money,” Tooley says. “The women’s WNBA, their salaries aren’t as lucrative as the men, obviously, but that’s more attractive than what three-on-three currently offers. So we are working to build our ecosystem of players, coaches and everybody else involved so that it becomes a foundation of a product.
“FIBA and other countries will say, wait a second you got, you know, millions and millions of players. Yes, we do. But in terms of those who are able to compete, millions don’t factor into it, it’s hundreds. And those hundreds are tied up with the sport through five-on-five. So we’re trying to thread the needle of blending the two and maybe someday down the road, three-on-three is more lucrative from a business standpoint. I know FIBA started a world tour for men and a world series for women to pay them. So it’s a start but it’s in its infancy.”
Investing in a three-on-three league wouldn’t just solve the U.S. problem of developing the best possible Olympic (and World Cup) teams, it would also address the larger issue of creating more opportunities for women to play professional basketball domestically. Force 10, the ownership group of the Seattle Storm, launched a three-on-three team in 2019. Last year, Force 10 partnered with the Chicago Sky to create a full three-on-three division that sponsored 26 players as they competed in the Red Bull three-on-three series. The Sun, Wings and Fever all came aboard in 2022.
In some ways, the idealized version of the three-on-three endeavor mirrors the G League on the men’s side. Athletes who don’t make the WNBA or NBA still have an opportunity to compete professionally but at a lower level. If every ownership group in the WNBA were to get involved, the league could essentially create 48 additional roster spots (each team has four players) and a concurrent set of three-on-three games alongside the 40-game regular-season schedule. Teams could keep an eye on emerging talent for the WNBA level while also generating an additional entertainment product. The salaries would likely not be competitive, at least not to start, but teams could have the opportunity to compete in sponsored three-on-three events, like the FIBA women’s series, for prize money.
“Every WNBA team should have a three-on-three team, like that should be the thing and that could be a subset of the WNBA,” Robinson said. “If you make it through training camp and you get cut, go on to three-on-three team, be able to travel the circuit, be able to go to these tournaments, but also have some more tournaments in the United States, which they’re trying to do more of. I feel like there’s incredible opportunity there.
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“The whole thing is to be loose and enjoy basketball, and it’s this different take on basketball, and it’s this way to earn money that’s kind of streetball adjacent. And I think the players really enjoy being able to travel, being able to play against really high-quality competition from all over the world.”
Three-on-three has tapped into something special already, as it is the largest urban team sport in the world, according to a study commissioned by the IOC. Whether it’s the change of pace, the atmosphere or the potential addition of eight Olympians to the USA Basketball roster, there seems to be something for everyone.
“It’s just such a different environment,” Burton added. “It’s definitely different, the whole feel, the whole vibe is different from five-on-five, but it’s just kind of a fun welcoming environment that is still intense and still has that high competitiveness. But also, it’s something that it’s a really quick turnaround, you don’t have to go there for an hour and a half or a huge kind of commitment, it’s only 10-minute games, so it’s really intense. It’s really kind of fast-paced, but at the same time it’s just as entertaining.”
And it seems to have a future.
The “No Offseason” series is part of a partnership with Google Pixel. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Top photo, from left, of Camille Zimmerman, Veronica Burton, NaLyssa Smith, Lexie Hull: Courtesy of USA Basketball and FIBA)
