Just one month after 3×3 basketball made its debut at the Tokyo Olympics, Montreal is hosting a major 3×3 tournament right in the heart of downtown Quartier Des Spectacles.
This time, though, there is a twist.
Distrix Festival is a new concept and a Canadian first, featuring the best of 3×3 basketball and street arts.
The festival highlights a major 3×3 basketball tournament with twenty teams from around the world, including 12 men’s teams and eight women’s.
Keeping with its urban theme, there will also be competitions featuring rap battles, dance battles and graffiti contests.
The 3×3 basketball style is slightly different than 5×5. Players only use half a court, one basketball net and each game is only 10 minutes. The first team to get to 21 points wins.
“It’s very spectacular, rapid, robust, so it’s very intense all the time,” says tournament director Jo-Annie Charbonneau.
“The tournament features three men’s teams on the lineup and one women’s team also, so Canada is well represented,” she added.
The sport made its Olympic debut earlier this summer in Tokyo. Canada didn’t qualify but fans can watch both the Lithuanian men’s and American women’s gold medal teams this weekend.
Team Canada’s Catherine Traer says these tournaments help showcase the sport in Canada.
“We kind of had a late start to the sport, and even though we did great two years ago and won a lot of these major events like this, we did not qualify for the Olympics,” said Traer.
“We’re back on track trying for Paris 2024,” she added.
Montreal is the sixth and final stop of this year’s FIBA 3×3 tournament schedule. The qualifying teams will play in the finals in Bucharest, Hungary, on September 18 and 19.