LeBron James Doesn’t See Himself Playing 3-On-3 Basketball In The Olympics

The 3-on-3 basketball surge reached a new pinnacle when it was announced that the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo would include 3-on-3 hoops for the first time. The emergence of the BIG3 is the first major 3-on-3 league in the United States, but FIBA’s 3×3 league has made the game global, and now it’s coming to the Olympic games.

There are still questions about 3-on-3 hoops in the Olympics, and for those here in the U.S., the main one is whether NBA players will be allowed to participate. LeBron James isn’t sure what the answer to that question is either, but the superstar who has a pair of Olympic gold medals from 2008 and 2012 doesn’t anticipate that he’ll be trying out for the 2020 3-on-3 squad.

James was asked about the addition of 3-on-3 basketball to the Olympics during Sunday’s media availability in Oakland, and while James said he felt it was great for the sport, he said that he didn’t see himself playing 3-on-3, noting he’s not very good at it.

“I think it’s great for basketball,” James said. “For us to be able to add another category to the Olympics, I think it’s pretty great. I haven’t seen the full layout of how they plan on executing it and are they going to use NBA guys? Are they going to use college guys? I’m not sure. But I’m not very good at the 3-on-3 thing. I’m more of a 5-on-5 guy. I stay out of the 1-on-1 match-ups during our practices — the 2-on-2’s, 3-on-3’s. So, I probably won’t be part of the 3-on-3 match-up that it has to offer.”

I don’t believe LeBron for a minute when he says he’s not good at 3-on-3 basketball, considering he’s the best basketball player on the planet (and I don’t think he does either with the smirk he had on his face as he said it), but I can understand why he wouldn’t want to play. It is a significantly more isolation-heavy game, which isn’t LeBron’s favorite thing as such a talented passer of the ball, and with 5-on-5 not going anywhere, there isn’t any reason for James to jump ship for the 3-on-3 competition if he decided he wanted to participate — and at 35 in 2020, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to pull double duty if even possible.

This statement also seems to indicate that James isn’t considering a potential BIG3 career after his NBA career ends, which is unfortunate. I’d love to watch a 40-year-old LeBron bullying his way around the BIG3 with his team made up of all the old guys in the banana boat crew. Can you just imagine LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony on the same BIG3 squad with maybe one other big guy on the roster, just running the league? I hope as he gets older LeBron sees the appeal of 3-on-3 hoops and makes the transition, but we shouldn’t hold our collective breaths for that to happen.