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By Wilfred Pilo
KUCHING, July 2: A total of 32 teams participated in the 3-on-3 basketball competition during the Street of the Street 2023 event organised by FL Basketball Club in collaboration with Hock Seng Lee at La Promenade Mall here today.
FL Motorsport and Basketball Club Kuching member Gary Yong said today’s competition which was opened to players of all ages aimed to help support the development of the sport locally.
“Since the game was introduced ten years ago in Kuching, we wanted to bring it back to the street again after the Covid-19 pandemic as we have good players here,” he shared.
“The sport started to pick up again in Kuching in the last two years after basketball enthusiasts saw the Malaysia team playing 3-on-3 tournaments around South East Asia.”
3-on-3 basketball game is a popular streetball sport which started in USA during the 80s. It is professionally structured and sanctioned by International Basketball Federation (FIBA).
Yong said the sport took off on the world stage in 2010, and in Malaysia sometime in 2012.
“This 3-on-3 basketball became popular in Kuching as it does not need many players and it could be played on a basketball court half,” he told reporters when met at the mall today.
Yong said 3-on-3 basketball is ideal as part of streetball culture as it only needs a small space to be played and can be played both indoors and outdoors.
Yong opined that there are enough facilities in Sarawak to organise events like today’s, and they want to see more athletes in the sport participate.
“If there is more support for such an event and funding, it would be good for the sport in Sarawak. We welcome all this as we could do more with training and facilities to ensure that this sport could go far and to another level for those who want to be in the sport.”
Yong revealed their club currently do not receive government support in organising such an event, and the club members pay for expenses out of their own pockets.
“We are enthusiastic about the sport, and we want to encourage people to participate in this streetball culture of 3-on-3 basketball to take off in Kuching and Sarawak,” he explained.
Yong said the club’s next objective is to seek more funding and they intend to write to the Ministry of Youth and Sports for assistance.
“This is in the pipeline, and if such an event is successful, we will go to the next step to promote the sport. There will be more local tournaments for people to get involved in.”
Yong described the local scene as increasingly competitive, and athletes who want to excel in 3-on-3 basketball need to be fit, and preferably tall.
“Ideally, the player should be 182cm in height or above as tall players would have an advantage in this sport. We have such players, but we want more up to 190cm to 200 cm in height and fit players.”
He also revealed that Sarawak has many talents in tjd sport, and events like today’s is also a way to scout for new talented young players.
“This also involved in scouting for female players, and there are many girls out there in Kuching and Sarawak who have the talent in the sport.bSo we hope by organising such event, we could help to scout for them and others who are not discovered,” he said.
“We hoped there would be more basketball clubs formed to be more competitive and to get a pool of talented players. There must be good funding assistance so that we could participate and organise more competitions,” he added. — DayakDaily
