When Unrivaled, the new women’s 3-on-3 pro basketball league, tips off in Miami on Friday, the league is hoping to produce a game reminiscent of the fast-paced, pickup style that hoopers are used to playing on a street court.
“This game is rooted in how you would play basketball as a kid on a black top,” Luke Cooper, Unrivaled president of basketball operations, told ESPN. “There’s flow. There’s pace. When you are watching, it feels like you are watching basketball … it’s not a gimmick.”
Played on a condensed 49.2-foot by 72-foot court — compared to the WNBA’s 94-by-50 court and the Olympics’ 36-by-49 halfcourt — the rules for the new 3-on-3 league will be vastly different from the 3×3 Olympics event which made its debut in the Tokyo Games.
League officials told ESPN each Unrivaled game will feature three seven-minute quarters and a fourth quarter which the league is calling “winning score.” The winning score will be determined by adding 11 points to the leading team’s score through three quarters. For example, if the score is 50-48 heading into the final quarter, the first team to reach 61 points wins. There will never be overtime.
“We want this to be about basketball,” Cooper said. “You’re just playing to a score, which is…
