WARSAW (Poland) - The beauty of 3x3 basketball, according to Aleksandra Ziemborska, is that there is nowhere to hide.
No teammates to disappear behind. No long stretches to ease into the game. No room for weaknesses to stay hidden.
In 3x3 basketball, everything is exposed.
"If you can't play defense, you'll get exposed. If you can't shoot, people will use it," she said. "You can't hide anything. It's just pure skill."
That is part of what drew Ziemborska to the discipline and helped make her one of the faces of Poland's growing women's 3x3 basketball program. Now, with the FIBA 3x3 World Cup 2026 heading to Warsaw, she hopes the rest of the country will discover what she already knows -- that the sport's fast-paced, high-energy style is impossible to ignore.
For Ziemborska, the appeal begins with the game's intensity.
"It's short, it's dynamic," she said. "You need to focus for those 10 to 20 minutes. You cannot play like you're getting bored."
And then there are the highlights.
"3x3 is all about the highlights," she said with a laugh. "Sometimes people say, 'Can you please stop? This is not a circus. Don't shoot the fadeaways.' But I like it. It has to be fun."
That sense of fun has helped fuel Poland's steady rise on the international stage. While the country is not traditionally known as a basketball powerhouse, the women's 3x3 basketball team has begun knocking on the door of the world's elite. Recent fourth-place finishes at both the FIBA 3x3 Europe Cup and the FIBA 3x3 World Cup showed how close Poland is to reaching the podium.
For Ziemborska, those near-misses are both encouraging and frustrating.
"Being fourth, on one side it's great," she said. "But then, on the other hand, you're just this close. So close, but so far."
The margins, she believes, are razor-thin.
"We need to get a little bit better. Just fix these little details," she said. "I think this team is really well built. We have the size, we have the speed, we have the shooting, we have the rebounding. If we put in a bit more work, we can achieve whatever we want."
The opportunity to take that next step will come in front of a home crowd in Warsaw, where the world's biggest 3x3 basketball event will unfold in a historic city-center setting.
Ziemborska can hardly wait.
"I think the area will be so loud," she said. "It's a historical square right in the city center. There will be a lot of people walking by, and maybe they'll stop and see that this is a new sport and it's kind of fun."
She knows firsthand the impact Polish fans can have. At a previous FIBA 3x3 U23 World Cup held in Poland, she experienced what she describes as the best atmosphere of her career.
"All the fans were on our side. They were always cheering," she recalled. "If I see more people and everybody is cheering, I get more energy from this. I just play better."
Yet beyond medals and results, Ziemborska hopes the tournament leaves a lasting legacy.
She wants young girls in the stands to see possibilities.
"I want them to fall in love with this sport and start playing," she said. "Being an athlete helps in your normal life, too. You can experience things that probably no normal person will. You travel, you make friendships, you grow."
As Poland prepares to welcome the world to Warsaw, Ziemborska is chasing more than a breakthrough finish. She is chasing a moment that could inspire a new generation and bring an entire nation closer to the game she loves.
"Just go and watch us at the World Cup," she said.
FIBA