Basketball Alberta Exec Dir Paul Sir yesterday "spoke about FIBA's plans" for three-on-three basketball, which will be a part of the Olympics in '16 and '20, according to Chris O'Leary of the EDMONTON JOURNAL. Sir said FIBA has targeted the '16 Rio de Janeiro Games "as a demo sport with the International Olympic Committee and 2020 as a medal sport, and there's a big push right now to have it be a medal sport even in 2016 (and) to do the testing earlier." He added, "It will be in the Olympics by 2020, there's no question about it." More Sir: "It’s no different than beach volleyball. I think it’ll have that same net impact on the basketball community, and (FIBA has) plans for a pro league, they have plans for a world championship, they have a world tour, competitions leading into that. There’s a lot of high-level planning going on, but the real power in this globally is the accessibility at the grassroots level." Sir said that the three-on-three game "will now serve as an introduction to basketball for youngsters, rather than the five-on-five, full-court game" (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 6/30).
