The coach answers – theoretically, what would be the chances of the Latvian basketball stars to win the 3×3 Olympic champions?

Could Latvia’s brightest basketball stars Kristaps Porziņgis, Dāvis Bertāns, Rolands Šmits and Rihards Lomažs defeat the former 3×3 Olympic champions – Nauri Miezi, Kārli Lasmani, Edgar Krūmiņa and Agni Čavara? Raimonds Feldmanis, coach of the 3×3 Latvian basketball team, answered this theoretical question.

“It would be very difficult for them in the first game without a training process,” Feldmanis said on the “Buffete” talk show. “I have analyzed that a player who has just switched from classic basketball to 3×3 basketball commits two three fouls per game on average. If there are four players, that is eight fouls that can turn into six baskets or six to 12 points. The game goes to 21.”

Feldmanis believes that the Latvian basketball stars could theoretically start winning after about the third game, when adaptation to the new format would have already taken place. “Everything can be trained and everything can be improved!”

Although such a game will never happen, basketball fans have always wondered what the world’s best classic basketball players would look like in 3×3 basketball. It should be noted that several former NBA players have tried their hand at the “Big 3” league in the USA, but at the national team level, 3×3 basketball features completely different names than in the classic one.

Latvian classical basketball team and 3×3 Olympic champions. Photo: EPA/Toms Kalniņš/AP/Jeff Roberson/Scanpix