The 2024 FIBA 3×3 U23 World Cup begins this Wednesday, Sept. 11 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. A day before leaving for the tournament, the United States’ Azana Baines found the time to talk to Swish Appeal about the tournament and 3×3 basketball in general. Baines just completed her collegiate career this spring, playing her second season for Seton Hall after two seasons at Virginia Tech and a season at Duke.
She also discussed how, despite growing up in a house full of women, her game was shaped by men, her bond with her twin sister and her first professional season in Spain. Some highlights from the conversation include:
On learning to play basketball with guys:
Being a girl playing with guys, you just have to earn their respect. But you know, once you do get the respect, it kind of just goes on from there. The guys are always picking me up first to play with them and stuff like that. Once they realize how good I actually was and I think that’s helped me a lot just as far as my game and the confidence that I have when I play basketball, because you know, guys, they play with a lot of confidence. They naturally are like, have a lot of pride and stuff like that when it when it comes to sports. So that’s kind of…
