MONTEVIDEO — The Uruguayan Basketball Federation continue to work guided by their motto “Our legacy is our commitment.” And for that reason, they began the second semester of the year with a lot of activities in their formative categories in a tournament in which more than 3,500 children participate from both sexes. They also support 3x3 basketball and the creation of a training center for this urban sport, which is number one in the world, and that in Uruguay already has 7,000 active players that practice it in the National Tours.

3x3 is FUBB’s strong bet and it has been practically since their establishment that they have adopted this popular modality in the nation’s cities. This is an original idea by FIBA that continues to grow day after day.

The 3x3 events have become authentic festivals in Montevideo, with marketing initiatives, performances, live TV broadcasts and they are open to the general public. With FIBA's support, this sport is being played in clubs, plazas and public spaces.

“3x3 is a very important tool to insert players in Uruguayan basketball. We have one hundred 3x3 events a year in the National Tour. We've already participated in many international competitions and we want to take a big leap. There are many, many players,” said to FIBA.basketball Ricardo Vairo, FUBB President.

The Federation works day in and day out to improve practice spaces and to take the sport further, with the idea that 3x3 basketball will be an Olympic discipline in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, as was approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

In 2012, FUBB added Tour 3x3 as one of the main activities of the Federation's schedule. In the beginning there were 7 stages at a national level and in 2014 they were already able to reach the whole country (19 departments). Since 2015 they have 7414 players registered in FIBA 3x3. All these achievements were evidenced by the gold medal in the senior men's category and the bronze medal in the women’s category at the 2018 Odesur Games in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Also, Uruguay participated in several international competitions (the Youth Olympic Games, World Games, South American Games, World Tours) in their senior and formative categories, and many times were key players in them.

“The 7th National Tour is about to conclude and the 8th is set to start. This discipline has grown significantly at a national level, is part of the FUBB objectives, and is aligned with the institutional politics of the Federation. It continues to be a very interesting product in development. We hope that the next Tour is televised, which would be an important quality jump and would boost its popularity throughout the nation,” stated Álvaro Butureira, FUBB Marketing Director, to FIBA.basketball.

“3x3 is a sports product that's growing very much, particularly since FIBA promoted it in 2010, when Patrick Baumann (former FIBA Secretary General, who passed away in October of 2018 at the age of 51) built this 3x3 structure that has had an unprecedented worldwide success. Few believed that the discipline would get to the Olympic Games and today we can talk about what was Mr. Baumann's enormous legacy. He achieved this. Now, in his memory, we will be enjoying the 3x3 in Tokyo,” stated Butureira, who also said that “in South America there's the intention of promoting the 3x3 in U21 Sudamericanos.”

On January 16, FUBB and the Municipality of Montevideo signed an agreement with which they gained access to an important venue, mainly for the development of 3x3. These facilities have a court remodeled by FUBB, with the support of TV partner Tenfield. The venue was remodeled and a 3x3 court was built so that the preliminary teams and national teams can practice before they participate in tournaments.

“The Municipality of Montevideo has granted us a venue in a very prestigious place in the city. A great amount of money has been invested and a rubber floor has been installed for the facilities to become the 3x3 center. This will help us gain more popularity. This is an important asset and we will inject it with a good percentage of our annual budget. We're hopeful that this place will give our discipline a quality boost and it will become the official venue of the national teams,” said FUBB President Ricardo Vairo to FIBA.basketball.

The recent national tour took place throughout 19 departments, 33 cities, 12,000 kilometers traveled, and 45 stages for both sexes in the U15, U18 and U23 categories. There were 1,800 players distributed in 500 teams, and they played more than 1500 games.

Without a doubt 2018 established a before and after in Uruguayan 3x3, with Javier Isis as a trainer, and featuring Nicolás Borsellino, Nicolás Catalá, Sebastián Vázquez and Federico Pereiras. With this lineup Uruguay achieved the gold medal after defeating Argentina 21-17 in the Cochabamba Games in Bolivia. Meanwhile, for the women, the bronze medal was obtained by Aldana Gayoso, Daiana Cartró, Camila Kirschenbaum and Lucía Schiavo, under the direction of Victoria Pereyra, with whom they defeated Paraguay 18-17.

“We saw the results of all this work that started from the ground up with the children, working hand in hand to build the Tours, in the Odesur Games. We have a platform to register all players, from the youngest to the oldest, with their respective physical and medical evaluations, so that we can recruit them in their process and take them to the national teams. We ask them to subscribe in the registry of the 3x3 teams so that they can be seen by the Federations,” said Coach Javier Isis.

“The 3x3 and the national teams have their similarities. I like to go to the Tours because that's where we detect the players that are of the quality of the national team. This is a great call to include children in basketball. It’s something very important for our nation. The 3x3 gets to where basketball is yet to be developed,” said who was also a trainer for the 2005 Generation.
The national men’s and women’s teams are already preparing to play a new tournament: the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima.

 
FUBB also intends to include the 3x3 modality to the Formative League Tournament, which is another one of the strong points of the Federation. This tournament began in March, and 54 teams are participating with six categories each. 3500 players of both sexes play in it, and it’s quite an important event for the future of the Uruguayan national teams.

“Let’s try for clubs to have 3x3 teams by category —U15, U17, U19— and that each club has team. Also, that there are no individual championships. Despite rankings are individual, we’ll try to force clubs to have 3x3 teams,” said Sebastián Alonso, President of FUBB’s Formative Categories.

The Federation strives to include children in basketball with their formative leagues and the 3x3 Tours in an effort to get more children to play basketball and to strengthen the national teams and try to add more achievements to their record.

FIBA