PARIS — The U.S. was eliminated from the 3×3 men’s basketball competition on Sunday at the Paris Olympics after finishing 2-5 in pool play while playing its last five games without star Jimmer Fredette.
“We fought hard, I think we just ran out of gas playing with three,” Canyon Barry said. “It’s so tough … my heart still breaks for Jimmer. It’s just not fair that someone of that high character has to go through this.”
Fredette was brought in to boost the team after it failed to qualify for the Tokyo Games, and his play helped the U.S. enter these Olympics as the No. 2 seed. But he sustained a lower extremity injury in the team’s second game and didn’t play again.
The U.S. opened pool play with four losses. Huge games by Barry, the son of Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry, lifted the team to wins over France and China before the Americans were eliminated Sunday with a 21-6 rout by the Netherlands.
The U.S. is left wondering what could have been if Fredette wasn’t injured.
“Most of our team is kind of centered on him offensively,” Canyon Barry said. “We run a lot of stuff through him. So when he goes out, we had to change the whole way we played.”
The U.S. had the same number of wins in pool play as Poland but lost the tiebreaker because Poland beat the U.S. in the…
