The first weekend of the new blockbuster 3×3 league Unrivaled went off without a hitch.
The on-court action delivered as expected, with players like Napheesa Collier, Jewell Loyd, and Rhyne Howard balling out for their teams and fans alike.
It was a brilliant source of entertainment, and maybe, just maybe, the NBA could learn something from their success.
Specifically, the NBA’s All-Star weekend has been losing shine for years now and needs a flashy new event to restore interest. The NBA collaborated with the W for All-Star Weekend, and it was a smash hit.
What would be the harm in taking more inspiration from some of their brightest minds?
What Is Unrivaled?
As previously stated, Unrivaled is a three-on-three women’s basketball league run by the aforementioned Collier and Breanna Stewart. Six teams consist of 36 WNBA players, including Collier and Stewart. The games consist of three seven-minute quarters, followed by an untimed fourth quarter that ends when one team hits a set winning score. These rules allow for a fast-paced version of everyday basketball, which players and fans alike seem to enjoy.
There’s more to it, of course, but those are the basic rules that make Unrivaled stand out from the rest. From seeing the product in action, there’s a lot the NBA could implement into their All-Star weekend to re-energize it.
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Option 1: The All-Star Game is out, the All-Star 3×3 is in
This first option would see the All-Star game become a three-on-three tournament with similar rules to Unrivaled.
A few things stay the course through this process. For example, the courts will remain at NBA regulation size. There simply isn’t enough turnaround from Saturday’s festivities to get the court shortened in time. Furthermore, the normal NBA ball will be used like it always is during the regular All-Star Game.
Now for the changes. First, this tournament would revert back to East vs. West. The captains would be the leading vote-getters in each conference, and the coaches would be those from the No. 1 seed of each team in each conference. The game itself would consist of three seven-minute quarters, just like Unrivaled.
Like Unrivaled, the shot clock would be shortened to 18 seconds, and the final quarter would be untimed. One tweak from Unrivaled’s setup is that the winning team’s score at the end of the third quarter would be +20 instead of +11, which ensures more basketball for the fans.
Since it’s back to East-West, another implementation is that the winning conference gets home court in the Finals, like the MLB used to do. Now, there’s something of note for everyone to play for, assuming the monetary rewards stay, too, of course. This solution ensures the fans get the best product while rewarding the players for going hard in the ASG.
Option 2: A 3×3 tourney rounds out All-Star Saturday.
In the last few years, the Dunk Contest slowly lost all resemblance to the show-stopping event it used to be.
However, it still closes out the Saturday portion of the weekend. Such a stale event shouldn’t be the closer to a weekend that is supposed to be a thrill ride for all involved. To fix this, the dunk contest moves to the beginning of the night, and the Skills Challenge is gone altogether— not sure many will miss it.
Then, regardless of conference, the top four vote-getters get to be captains for a three-on-three team.
Each captain will get to pick two players to represent their teams, and the games will run a bit like this year’s ASG. The winner of the first game will meet the winner of the second game, while each loser will play in a third-place game akin to the World Cup. The shot clock will be shortened to 18 seconds, like in Option 1.
Furthermore, the score will be set at 40 points from the beginning. This will ensure that the games aren’t too long and that the players aren’t extremely tired.
One problem that could arise is with the third-place game, one team would get more rest than another. However, a ten-minute break could give both teams enough recovery time for it not to matter. Overall, this new implementation would increase the entertainment value of the Saturday portion of ASW, attracting more eyes.
Option 3: A 1v1 tournament – either Saturday or Sunday
This last option has been in circles for a while, but Unrivaled has implemented one of its own. It will kick off on Feb. 10-14, and the winner will receive $200,000. The rules are as follows:
- Games are first to six points.
- Each shot is worth one point.
- No offensive rebounds.
- Possessions last seven seconds.
With a few tweaks, like raising the score from six to 15 and making three-pointers worth two points, there’s a very good product to be had here. This could either replace the ASG or be an event on Saturday. Either one works due to how flexible the concept is. The fans would either get young players showing their skills to new audiences or the stars of the game settling lifelong debates on the court.
They could even get a mixture of both. All in all, this is an easy and entertaining option for the NBA to spice up their ASW. The whole thing has needed a shake-up for years now, and thanks to startup Unrivaled, they might have some answers to what that shake-up could be.
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