Five fantastic players we would love to see stepping out in the FIBA 3x3 Women's Series 2020

MIES (Switzerland) - With the FIBA 3x3 Women's Series ready to go from strength to strength in 2020, we've been looking at which players could potentially help the series to soar.

With our focus fixed very firmly on some of the emerging stellar talent within women's hoops right now:

Florencia Chagas – Argentina

 
Too fast, too strong, too crafty for defenders throughout her youth career wearing her beloved Argentina vest, Chagas is a walking highlights reel. With her mad handles, stylish creativity and scoring ability she can kill you stone dead. If you dare to consider her additional attributes of athleticism, passion and a tenacious spirit, she ticks just about every 3x3 box there is. Hit her hard with a foul and you will get the stare. Wait a few seconds later and you are likely to get a shot from distance right in your face, or maybe get left nursing your ankles as she executes a crossover and glides to the bucket. Maybe you will get off lightly and she will just make you look west – when she is passing to the east and finding an open teammate with a behind the back pass. Already with EuroLeague Women minutes under her belt at Famila Schio, the teenager is the one big hope for the future of Argentina. Seeing her talent more on the 3x3 stage like when she played at the Youth Olympic Games, would be spreading the joy and love of a top drawer game that little bit further.

Juste Jocyte – Lithuania

 
Too much hype? Really, we hear some of you mentioning the ‘H Word’? Let’s talk facts. This 14-year-old rising star is on a near-vertical trajectory because her game is insane. Not because she is friends with the legendary Tony Parker and now playing in Lyon for him. She has become the youngest ever player to step out in EuroLeague Women and with the Lithuanian national team because her IQ is off the chart for her age and she can smell and sense the lure of basketball net blindfolded. She can take orders for buckets. The only question is ‘how do you want it served?’ She has the ability to score from anywhere, the ice cold composure of a veteran -only 15 years ahead of time, while being from a country where basketball is a religion means fundamentals are a given. A record collector, she put Lithuania on her back last year and carried them to a first ever Final at the FIBA U16 European Women’s Championship, also stuffing a maiden ticket to the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup into her pocket. Yes, we’re only weeks into 2020 but this ‘history’ magnet already has more landmarks incoming. Forget the ‘H-Word’ and just get with the buzz around her.

Hind Ben Abdelkader - Belgium

 
We have already seen her lighting up 3x3 courts in the past. She was one of the reasons that people started walking about wearing 'Belgium Got Game' t-shirts, as some brilliant female hoopers starting to emerge.' HBA' has not been gunning with the Belgian Cats during their rise to prominence in basketball in these past years, even if she is an absolute scoring machine. But, a proven WNBA baller, this means the highlighter pen can be circled on her resume in a big way even more, while she has also got EuroLeague and EuroCup Women minutes and buckets bulging from her belt. If you have the misfortune of matching up with her on the floor, your biggest problem will be making sure you don't blink. Once your eyelids briefly make contact, it will be your ears burning as you hear the 'swish' of another long-distance shot sunk. She also has ice-cold moves on the floor thanks to her red-hot handles and if she does come back to 3x3, you have been handed a notice - get your ankles strapped real firm.

Soraya Mohamed - Egypt

 
She’s already attained the moniker of being the ‘Basketball Queen of Egypt’, but you can probably extend that way beyond borders heading into 2020, because there are few female hoopers who capture the attention quite like our FIBA 3x3 Africa Cup MVP. Her 3x3 mixtapes are hot property and have gone viral. This is a baller who knows how to please the fans. She comes with an entertainment guarantee and is always getting the viewers off their seats due to her amazing ability. She already made the list of women who defined 3x3 in 2019, but she looks like she’s only getting started and there could be way more to come in the months and years ahead. Breaking down barriers for women’s basketball, Mohamed is edging closer to becoming a genuine icon of women’s 3x3.

Jisu Park – Korea

 
It’s jaw-dropping to think that with everything she has achieved already in her career, that this Asian basketball phenomenon is still only 21-years-old! It’s truly stunning and perhaps not surprising, considering how young she was when she started killing it at multiple U17 and U19 global events before leading the senior team at the Worlds back in 2014 when it is just staggering that she was a mere 16-year-old kid. Since then, her towering frame has been witnessed making waves for Asian basketball in the WNBA and she has now got an eye on Tokyo 2020. To see her take on the 3x3 world would be such a thrill as she offers something completely different. She is unstoppable down low and will mop it up . Once she catches it anywhere near the bucket, it’s curtains closed for her defenders. With that nice mid-range shot, she will be able to step out and kill you from outside on a 3x3 floor as well, while opposing shots are gonna get blocked. That would be locked in for sure.

FIBA