This weekend, basketball fans can walk into Sengkang Grand Mall and watch some of the world’s best 3×3 basketball players in action – all for free. The 3×3.EXE Super Premier, the top international tournament of the world’s largest professional 3×3 league system, is making its Singapore debut, with 12 teams, including the Singapore senior and U-23 teams, battling it out as the final stop of the 2025-26 season.
It is the latest sign of a sport on the rise in Singapore. Since hosting 3×3 basketball’s official debut at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, the city has become one of the discipline’s key homes in Asia, hosting the FIBA 3×3 Asia Cup annually since 2022. Next month, the Asia Cup returns to The Kallang’s OCBC Square from 1 to 5 April, followed by the FIBA 3×3 World Cup Qualifier on 11 and 12 April. In 2027, Singapore will host the FIBA 3×3 World Cup.
A Historic Silver
At the 2025 SEA Games in Bangkok, Singapore’s men’s 3×3 team won the Republic’s first-ever 3×3 basketball medal. After edging out the 2019 champions, the Philippines, 21-20 in a heart-stopping semi-final, they took silver, falling 18-21 to hosts Thailand in the final.
For team captain Nur Aufa Bin Emil Putra, the road to the podium was built on adversity.
“Up until the SEA Games happened, a lot of our results weren’t really great,” the 25-year-old said. “But I think it’s the fact that the results weren’t great that it kept pushing the whole team to keep getting better every single competition.”
The semi-final against the Philippines was a masterclass in composure. With no coaching allowed during 3×3 games, the quartet of Aufa, Ching Zhen Yu, Liam Blakney and Xu Duanyang, had to manage the pressure themselves.
“We reminded each other to stay calm, look for the advantages that we can create, and ultimately, what we were planning to take away from the other team,” Aufa recalled.
The result shifted a mindset, with Aufa adding, “Now, we don’t go into games nervous. We go into games ready.”
Building Momentum
Behind the breakthrough is a programme that has been quietly growing under head coach Lazar Rasic. What started as a thin roster has expanded to more than 20 players training regularly, and a culture of belief.
“What’s changed the most is they are actually believing that results for Singapore are possible on the global scene,” Rasic said.
“At the beginning, it was a little bit questionable. Now the morale and the mindset are more like – we can do it, we can be competitive, and we can win medals.”
For the women’s team, the headline results have not come as quickly. An 11th-place finish at the Asia Cup 2025 and missing out on the SEA Games semi-final in Bangkok show that the team is still finding its feet at the international level. But the opportunities the programme has created, and the progress the players are making, tell a different story.
Matilda Lai Hor Ying, who was recruited into the 3×3 programme through her club Siglap Basketball Club, said the difference from the 5-on-5 setup was immediate.
“In my first year alone, I got to go overseas to play in a competition,” she said. “I think 3×3 has more opportunities. It’s not just a seasonal thing.”
Teammate Han Xingyue, 25, has gone a step further, putting her career on hold to train on court every weekday with the national squad. “I feel like a lot more attention is being put on 3×3 basketball,” she said. “I feel like it could be a possible career pathway.”
When the women’s team first competed in the FIBA Women’s Series in 2024, they did not win a single game. By 2025, they were picking up victories.
“We just keep believing,” Han said. “If we continue down this way, there will be results.”
A Packed Calendar
Events like the 3×3.EXE Super Premier at Sengkang Grand Mall bring world-class competition right into the heartlands, giving Singaporeans a chance to experience the sport up close. Low Jia Ren, Deputy Chief of the High Performance Sport Institute of Sport Singapore, said this is part of a broader push.
“The team is starting to make their presence felt internationally with their historic silver medal at the 2025 Southeast Asian Games and their qualification for the 2026 Commonwealth Games,” he said. “This tournament builds on that momentum for our athletes to further elevate their game against regional competitors and gain valuable competition experience with a local crowd cheering them on.”
For Rasic, hosting events at home is about more than results; it is about inspiring the next wave.
“Many other kids who are willing to come and watch can actually witness what kind of basketball 3×3 is, how we are fighting, and maybe see the potential in themselves somewhere in the future as national team athletes,” he said.
Han, who coaches youth basketball outside her national team commitments, has already seen the shift. “The kids were like, ‘Oh, coach, I’ve seen you before! You’ve played for the national team,” she said. “We don’t really hear that a lot last time.”
With the FIBA 3×3 Asia Cup, FIBA 3×3 World Cup qualifiers, Commonwealth Games, and Asian Games all on the 2026 calendar, this is shaping up to be the biggest year in Singapore’s 3×3 basketball history. And for fans, the best part is that much of the action is right on their doorstep, starting this weekend at Sengkang Grand Mall.
“I’m hoping whatever we are doing now also opens up a path for the next generation moving forward,” Aufa said. “I want people to be able to fully absorb themselves in their sports.”
