The U.S. men's and women's basketball teams have had a ball so far in Paris, romping through their first four games en route to the semifinals. Gold — an eighth straight for the women and fifth for the men — is in sight, not just the hope but the expectation.

But that's only half of Team USA's basketball experience at these Games. Just off the Champs-Élysées, the U.S. men's and women's 3x3 teams had a bumpier ride: The latter rallied for a gritty bronze medal, while the former failed to make it out of pool play after missing the last Olympics entirely.

There is no gap when it comes to expectations; as U.S. women's 3x3 player Dearica Hamby put it, "the standard of USA Basketball is gold". Even as basketball grows by leaps and bounds globally, it remains a uniquely American sport in the country's imagination, a sort of collective birthright. 

But the reality is that there is a gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world when it comes to 3x3 specifically, a gap that results in Paris helped to illustrate — and one that the members of Team USA themselves would like to do something about moving forward. So, with the Olympics coming home to Los Angeles in 2028, how can that gap get closed?

The challenges that 3x3 presents

"These other countries, they have professional 3x3 players who do not play 5x5 anymore, like devote all their time to 3x3, prepared four years for the Olympics as a 3x3 group," Hailey Van Lith said. "And we're just, culturally in America, we're not there yet."

The quartet that comprised the U.S. Olympic women's 3x3 roster wasn't finalized until less than a month before the Opening Ceremony. Some of that was bad luck, specifically the injury to Los Angeles Sparks rookie Cameron Brink. But some of it was simply a product of a basketball culture that treats 3x3 as an afterthought, something to try to fit into the gaps in the 5x5 calendar. 

"We can't just go pick any four players we want," Van Lith said. "We have to structure our roster according to [FIBA] rules, and just finding time to get people qualified while playing 5x5 is very difficult."

Those rules are very specific: Each country's roster must be comprised of two players in the top 10 in that country's 3x3 FIBA rankings, with two more in the top 50. It's not enough to simply have the talent; clearly, the U.S. is overflowing with great basketball players. It's a matter of getting that talent to play 3x3 on a regular basis each year, and that's a challenge for a number of reasons.

The first is logistical: On the men's side, college and professional players are occupied in the fall, winter and into the spring, when most 3x3 events are held around the world. The women's team has had a slightly easier time given that the WNBA schedule takes place over the summer (with a break during Olympic years), but even then, many of the W's best players go overseas to keep playing 5x5 in the offseason. 

The second is possibly even more difficult: 3x3 is a brutally difficult game, a 10-minute dead sprint in which help defense doesn't exist and physicality is a given. Convincing players to fit that into the time in which they aren't playing basketball for their day job is tough enough, not to mention how their 5x5 teams might feel about things (and how much money is on the line).

"I personally enjoy physicality," Hamby said. "In the WNBA, that's like, my thing. [But] this is a different level, and it definitely makes a difference." 

All four members of the team say they try to sell teammates and friends around the game on giving 3x3 a try; some take to it, but others take a hard pass.

"You've got to be a certain type of player, like you have to be versatile, you have to be mentally tough," Burdick said. "You have to be, honestly, just knowing that it's going to hurt every time you step on that floor."

Growth moving forward

So, where does that leave the U.S. entering the 2028 cycle? Burdick, Van Lith and Co. are hardly giving up; USA Basketball hosted its first FIBA Women's Series event in Springfield this year, and Burdick is helping to launch a domestic 3x3 series, 3XBA, in hopes of making it easier for players to participate — and earn qualification points — by bringing the game closer to home.

"In Europe and Asia, they're hosting World Tours, Challengers, Women's Series, the men's side is going for almost five months during the summer," Burdick said. "But the U.S., we don't really prioritize hosting. We're just sending teams to various tournaments in Europe and in Asia."

Understandably, that's not the easiest sell on the men's or women's side. But USA Basketball is determined to hit the ground running, and give elite players every opportunity and incentive to pick the format up — with an eye towards dominating the event in L.A. four years from now. 

That's a tall order, but the appetite is there: Spin-off hoops series like Big3 have caught on in recent years. And besides, there are few things America loves more than Olympic basketball gold, whatever the format.