Tonga riding the 3x3 wave with in-country tournament

NUKU'ALOFA (Tonga) - Tonga is digging deep into the grassroots level to teach, promote, and develop their 3x3 scene to inject enthusiasm into the burgeoning discipline.

Tonga National Basketball Association (TNBA) launched its third 3x3 competition that has drawn eight participating teams to the tournament that featured a match-up between the Western and Eastern islands of the country.

Spongkong, the youngest team among the competitors, displayed fast learning ability with the huge win in the event dubbed as the Hahake Conference.

“The highlight of this event was just seeing a young, thriving basketball community. It has allowed the young locals to take part in this discipline and not just in the traditional 5-on-5 game,” said the federation.

Competition delegates spent the camp at the historic Atele Indoor Stadium that served as the battle arena for sporting events in the Kingdom of Tonga since time immemorial.

For most of the aspirants, this was the first time they had the chance to play under an organized format and official 3x3 rules that could benefit them in the long run both in popularizing the sport and sharing the knowledge and wisdom to more generations to come.

“We wanted to create an opportunity and avenue that can bring together our basketball community in hopes of paving the way more for athletes,” the Joshua Savieti of TNBA said.

“There are several basketball players here in Tonga and by putting up these events and the culture that comes it, we could open the floodgates for more interested players,” he added.

The competition had to gain its bearings at the start with unfamiliar rules to the players but by the time the playoffs kicked in, the action was impressive, according to the organizers.

Now, the young Tongan players have learned the ropes and they may be just getting started.

“It gives us a great idea on how things will progress, the more we grow this sport,” Savieti concluded.

FIBA