Perbasi Will Net Potential 3x3 Basketball Talents At PON Papua

Illustration - Indonesian women's 3x3 basketball team player Nathania Orville (right) tries to score under the tight control of Germany's Satou Sabally (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Papua National Sports Week (PON) 2021 is an event for PP Perbasi to recruit potential talents who are expected to strengthen the 3x3 basketball national team in the future.

Deputy Chairperson of PP PERBASI for Development and Achievement George Fernando Dendeng said that for the first time 3x3 will be competed as an official branch in PON so that it becomes an opportunity for the federation to look for talented young athletes as well as introduce 3x3 to the public so that it is more widely known.

“This year's 3x3 basketball was officially competed for medals in PON. Previously only exhibition branch. So that there is no superior team that gets special privileges other than the host team Papua. The draw is based on the results of the previous pre-PON," said George in a press release from Perbasi which was reported by Antara, Monday.

3x3 basketball will make its debut as an official sport that competes for medals at the Papua PON after the 2016 West Java PON only became an exhibition branch.

There are eight men's and women's teams that will participate in the 3x3 basketball branch. For the male category, Group A consists of East Java, South Sulawesi, Papua, and Central Java. Meanwhile, Group B includes West Java, Riau, DKI Jakarta, and North Sumatra.

In the women's category, Group A brought together teams from DKI Jakarta, West Sumatra, Papua, and West Kalimantan, while Group B consisted of Bali, Central Java, West Java and South Sulawesi.

George explained that when 3x3 basketball was officially competed, there would be new hope for the sport of 3x3 basketball to develop even more rapidly.

He also hopes that more and more young Indonesians will become interested in becoming 3x3 basketball athletes.

"Of course, we have high hopes that from the 3x3 number in the Papua PON, we can get potential players. We have seen that there are several names that might be able to join the National Team. We will see they will proceed in the PON later," he said.