The road to LA28
Beyond the glory, Warsaw mattered enormously for the road to LA28, where 3×3 basketball expands from eight teams per gender at Paris 2024 to twelve.
The USA are already qualified as hosts, and the Netherlands’ women and Spain’s men have also secured places in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament pathway following their performances at the Champions Cup in Bangkok earlier this year.
Basketball’s global governing body FIBA operates a dedicated 24-month Federation Ranking cycle running until December 2027, which will determine five of the 11 available qualifying spots per gender. Those spots are distributed regionally — one each to the top-ranked federation in Africa, the Americas, and Europe, and two to Asia-Pacific, with at least one reserved for an Asian nation.
The ranking is built from the points each player earns at FIBA-endorsed events, based on how far their team advances, whether they win games before the time limit, and their own performance stats. A nation’s Federation Ranking is then calculated by adding up the individual points of its top 25-ranked players. The World Cup sits at the very top of that competition network, making its points the most valuable of the entire season.
The remaining six qualifying spots will be determined by four qualifying tournaments held between March and June 2028. The next World Cup — and the next chance to bank crucial ranking points — takes place in Singapore in 2027.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective teams at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the LA Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at LA28.
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