July 2026 · 8 min read

Last Saturday, our young guys played at the first stop of the Pro League at the Vunzige Deuntjes festival in Amsterdam.

Arnau Rosenkamp - a guard who recently switched his focus to developing in the realm of 3x3.
Thijs Heuker - a 5v5 player who wants to stay active in the off-season.
Wouter Arends - a long-time dedicated player with experience, vision and an inextinguishable flame for competition.
Mauro Marrale - a 20-year-old guard, on a path to play 5v5 basketball professionally either in Italy or the Netherlands.

But before the team even travelled to play in that tournament, I had already heard the talk from coach Ata, after one of the usual Thursday practices.

"These young guys are tough, man, they were a problem yesterday" - I heard him say. "They were winning games against me, Daan and Thomas" - referring to the members of the 3x3 Groningen first team.

"Mauro is not bad at all, just light" - when Ata says not bad at all, that usually means: very good.

And looking at the current first team of 3x3 Groningen, one might point out that most of the core team is not exactly young (in basketball terms):

Sander de Roos: 35
Rico Bakker: 32
Thomas van Dijk: 26 (youngest of the team)
Julian Langeler: 30
Frank Hoogesteger: 39

There is no doubt that at this moment, they are better and more knowledgeable at 3x3, with much more playing time and experience. These guys really know how to close games and what it takes to win. I saw it myself during the 3x3NL Groningen at the Grote Markt. The final match in the Mannen Elite category: 3x3 Groningen vs Lange Dag (guys from the Donar youth team). I was scared waiting for the first whistle. Scared mostly of Ryan van Eyck - 96th ranked, a Dutch 5v5 national team player, who was hooping out of his mind that day, wheeling and dealing and working with what coach Ata would call "a complete package".

But to my great surprise, the final score of that game was 21-10 for 3x3 Groningen, which, in the world of 3x3, is considered a blowout. How did it happen? I couldn't tell you exactly, because I don't have the necessary understanding of the game on that level. But from what I could tell, it was experience and the specific knowledge and feel of 3x3. After all, it is not the same thing as 5v5. Similar, but not the same.

"There is no doubt that at this moment, they are better and more knowledgeable at 3x3, with much more playing time and experience. These guys really know how to close games and what it takes to win''.

My point is, the first squad of 3x3 Groningen is still the best. And the main reason behind it is that these guys are committed. They are practicing all year round, not just in the summer. And even though all of them come from the world of 5v5, they have made the transition to 3x3 and have made it their main focus. So you won't hear from them things like: "Oh, I am just playing some 3x3 in the off-season."

This is unfortunately not the case for most good players, and is currently the biggest challenge for 3x3 as a sport. A lot of guys like it, a lot of them play in tournaments, but also, a lot of them have to leave when the 5v5 season starts. And so it is with this young team: they played extremely well in Amsterdam. Lost 15-21 to Team Utrecht. Which is an extremely good result, considering that they played against the 23rd, 16th and 8th best players in the Netherlands. Not to mention Sheyi Adetunji, who is known to single-handedly decapitate teams with his 2-point shot. In their next game, they won against Den Haag (19-16) and then finally finished their night with a win against TeamNL U21 (18-14).

Their performance is not to be overstated. It is nothing more than a good start. They could go extremely far, win tournaments and compete at the highest level. But unfortunately, just as Arnau pointed out during our most recent practice: not everyone in the team is committed to 3x3. For some, it is a full-year sport with future potential, and for others, it is just a way to stay active during the off-season. This is what I call the Commitment Problem.

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