3x3 - Interview with Dan Cramer part two

DENVER (3x3) - Read the first part of Dan Cramer's interview about his basketball playing days as well as how he started doing 3x3 tournaments.

FIBA: How do you think FIBA should promote 3x3?
Dan Cramer:  I think with most things you have to create a top level, which is what they are trying to do. Because it's the same old pyramid, put the elite at the top and then at the bottom the recreational players who look up to the elite and say "okay let's do that!". I then think that it's very important that the governing bodies in each country become very supportive of it, organise tournaments; there are a lot of ways to develop it. The strength of FIBA is their organisation and I think they should build the 3x3 program through their organisations because that's where their strengths are,

They have governing bodies in all the countries and those countries need to make a commitment to create tournaments, create opportunities Once they start to do that than it will explode. 

Because it's fun to play and it's a little bit easier to play then full court since you don't have the same amount of running but you're developing a lot more touches.  The game is quicker as far as the transitioning and so I think what you'll see is that once people start playing it and if FIBA is able to make it part of the Olympics, then you'll see it really grow.

FIBA: Where do you think it will grow?
Dan Cramer:  I'll tell you where I think it will grow, in a lot of the smaller countries that are fairly new to basketball, that haven't  played as much basketball like as United States. And you know where I think it will really take off if they and FIBA do it right, China! Here's the reason why, with 3x3 you can take a court and six players on each end ( ie: make two 3x3 courts) playing so 12 players plus you got a couple subs, you get more players actively playing the game.

If you have a team of 10 and you only play five at a time and you may have a couple of substitutes. Where you can take that team of 10 and make two teams of five - with the FIBA rules it's four -  but they're all going to get better playing time because they're going to be on the court longer because of the way the game is set-up.

Long term you're going to get more people playing they're going to learn the game of basketball and it's much more fun. In a place like China where space and courts are a lot more limited, you can now have many more people play.

What's critical for FIBA is that they work closely with all the governing bodies to make sure that they are having tournaments; that there's an emphasis with the organised teams to participate because once they do that the game will grow. They play it at physical education classes, on courts...

FIBA: So far how have you benefited from the help of the governing bodies?
Dan Cramer:  I've worked very closely with Jim Tooley who is the director (CEO) of USA Basketball, we've worked together and he also introduced me to FIBA. We've talked about the rules, about doing tournaments so from my perspective they are looking to bring people to develop the programme.

For me as an event operator, because there's interest from USA Basketball in 3x3, that will translate to more people wanting to play. Potentially then, when I have tournaments more and more people will want to play to get better at the game of 3x3, because one day they could potentially play on the 3x3 US Olympic team or Youth team.

FIBA: You just mentioned playing in the Olympic. How do you feel about that possibility for 3x3 basketball?
Dan Cramer:  I think it's really cool; the thing that could really be fun about it is it needs a little bit of reality TV in it. FIBA needs to think about that, when I mean reality TV I'm thinking about something similar to "American Idol".

I think there has to be a little of that element in 3x3 basketball. Like we said a guy can come out of nowhere but can be a great shooter and maybe isn't athletically inclined to run up and down the court but is a great three point shooter and he's a perfect fit for 3x3 basketball. He therefore might have a chance to make it, I think that's exciting and people will go "why not, why not me!".

It could be a player who might have a chance to play in the NBA or he could be 34 years old simply and a great shooter.  We had a great story, the US had selected a team for the Youth World Championship in Rimini and they asked us to send our winner of the Miami tournament to train with the players they had selected. At the same time I was really nervous but in the end they fared extremely well against them.

So that goes to show that 3x3 is different and somebody can come out of nowhere that we don't know about. Because of the current system the way it is done, we're going to unfortunately miss some people.

FIBA: At the moment most promoters use their own 3x3 rules, do you think it's important for FIBA to instate the same rules for everyone?
Dan Cramer:  Ultimately, you need to have the same rules especially if you go to the Olympics and tournaments. But I don't think it's a must, for me we've been playing for 20 years with a set of rules. It's very difficult for me all of a sudden to change that, we tried using the FIBA 3x3 rules and as you can imagine some players had a hard time with it because they weren't used to it.

That's understandable for someone who's been playing a certain way for a number of years. I personally think that the rules are fine, especially if they're used in the Olympics. If that is the case then that will make it much easier for me to tell my players why we're playing with these rules, because these are the rules we're playing with at the Olympics.

That's why if you have USA Basketball behind it as well as other things, then the transition will take over naturally.  Now that FIBA is behind it, it just changes the whole dynamic, because FIBA will help with the recognition of it as well as the growth. The critical piece about 3x3 basketball is that it's fun to play!

Click here to read part one of our interview with Dan Cramer.

FIBA