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| Team Winnipeg - Jelane Pryce, Wyatt Anders, O'Neil Gordon, Matthew Koenig |
Fans can catch all of the action streaming live this weekend via the FIBA 3x3 YouTube page with the Finals airing on TSN2 on Tuesday, July 18.
The event has been organized by Saskatoon Sports Tourism, in partnership with Canada Basketball and will also take place in conjunction with Taste of Saskatchewan on July 14-16, 2017 (4th Avenue & 21st Street).
The Saskatoon World Tour Masters event is the first of seven tournaments leading up to the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Final set to take place in Beijing, China in October.
The FIBA 3x3 World Tour Masters will be comprised of 12 teams of four players from around the world participating in a two-day tournament. Teams set to compete include: Ljubljana (Slovenia), Liman (Serbia), Hamamatsu (Japan), NY Harlem (USA), Manta (Ecuador), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Princeton (USA), Toa Baja (Puerto Rico) and Humpolec (Czech Republic).
The 12 teams have been divided into four pools of three teams playing in a round-robin first round against their two respective pool opponents. The top-two placed teams from each pool advance to a standard knock-out round which starts at the quarter-finals stage on Sunday afternoon.
Canada will be well represented on the international stage with three teams competing in the tournament. The top two finishers at the 3x3 Canada Quest Finals last weekend, Team Montreal (Kyle Desmarais, Sebastian Beckett, Kevin Loiselle, Mukiya Post) and Team Winnipeg (Wyatt Anders, Jelane Pryce, Matthew Koenig, O'Neil Gordon) will be making the trip to Saskatchewan.
Team Saskatoon (Michael Linklater, Michael Lieffers, Nolan Brudehl, Steve Sir) will also be competing as the hometown favourites automatically qualified with their top-10 FIBA 3x3 world ranking. Team Saskatoon finished second overall at the FIBA 3x3 World Tour in 2014 and has made three appearances at the Final over the last four years.
In addition to the main event, a shoot-out contest and a dunk contest will take place in between games.
In the shoot-out contest, a maximum of one player per team will participate in the qualifying round where players shoot ten balls from the top of the arc in the shortest amount of time with the top four players advancing to the finals. The dunk contest will follow on Sunday with each of the three finalists hoping to receive top grades from the judges (and fans) as they look to advance to the finals.
Live music, cheerleaders, dance teams and other entertainment will be held throughout the weekend. An amateur 3x3 tournament is also being planned to take place on satellite courts alongside the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Masters.
The 12 participating teams will compete for two days for the pride to represent their city, a $20,000 USD cheque and a chance to qualify for the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Bloomage Beijing Final on October 21-22, 2017.
Check out the complete tournament schedule here.