1 month ago
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February 10, 2025 | 12:00am
Watching the Manila Hustle 3X3 tournament was a bit of a culture shock. Honestly, the games feel like they were being played fast forward. Paradoxically, the 10 minutes each game felt like forever because of the intensity, the physicality, and the quality, which was top-notch. The best talent from all over Asia was on full display, and they came to win.
Three-on-three basketball has come a long way since we first introduced it the country in 1996 via the Adidas Streetball Challenge. The NBA eventually picked up this version of the game, which was launched in Southeast Asia by this writer in the very same SM Mall of Asia Music Hall in 2011. Since then, the rules have evolved, making the game faster and more intense. Overtime, for example, used to be played until one team led by two. Now, the first team to score two points in the extra period wins.
“We want to keep the game at a very high level,” explains Peachy Cheng Medina of the organizing Uratex Group. “With international qualifiers being played for our event, we want to maintain the quality of play. We can’t just include anybody.”
Medina, a UAAP standout and the first woman inducted into the Ateneo Sports Hall of Fame, was a teammate of Women’s Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League commissioner Haydee Ong. She played for the Philippine team as a teenager, after starting out as a track athlete. Initially a purist of five-on-five basketball, she was invited to support Manila Hustle in its first season, and decided to stick it out. The event is now accredited by FIBA and is strongly supported by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.
“We’re glad that now, everyone is working together to uplift the women’s game,” she continues. “The community is committed to getting better and giving opportunities to all the talented women out there.”
The 16-team field included present and former national team members, Philippine Army and teams from Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Australia and Thailand. Among the players are an Olympian and world-ranked half-court ballers. Thus, the games featured a lot of incredible shooting, hard defense, but most of all, sportsmanship. The players of Japan’s XD (read “Cross D) for example, would even apologize to the referees, and admit to touching the ball last on out-of-bounds calls.
There is a purity and spirit to the play that one can’t help be excited about. It may take time, but the future seems limitless.
