Former NBA point guard Jason Williams yesterday encouraged basketball players in Taiwan to work on building their stamina so they can give their best in an upcoming three-on-three tournament.
Williams in a videoconference from Florida said that three-on-three games are more physically demanding than five-on-five because of the running involved.
“With five-on-five there are more people on the floor and that creates less room to operate, whereas for three-on-three, your one-on-one defense has to be really good because after one or two dribbles, people are going to be at the rim scoring,” said Williams, who played 12 seasons in the NBA.
Photo: Lin Yueh-fu, Taipei Times
In three-on-three games, players need to be quick and agile to be able to play effective defense, because each team lacks two players, Williams said in the promotional videoconference with Taiwanese media.
“For the young hoopers over in Taiwan who are going to do the three-on-three, you’d better get in shape and get ready to play,” he said ahead of the Cathay NBA 3X 2020 tournament that starts on Saturday.
Williams was known for his behind-the-back and no-look passes during his career, which included winning the NBA Finals with the Miami Heat against the Dallas Mavericks in 2006.
He said the dream of every player is to win a tournament and that he was no exception.
“In my opinion, as a player, that’s the only thing you play for, and that is to win a championship,” Williams said. “There were so many naysayers saying that I would never be a part of something like that and to be able to achieve that goal was the most precious moment in my life, as pertaining to sports.”
In addition, basketball has allowed him to travel all over the world and to learn how to interact with others, because it is not a one-on-one sport, he said.
“Without basketball I wouldn’t be sitting here with you guys in Taiwan from over the other side of the world,” Williams said.
The Cathay NBA 3X 2020, hosted by NBA Taiwan and sponsored by Cathay Financial Holdings, is to begin with preliminaries in Taichung at the weekend, before moving on to Taoyuan on July 18 and 19, Taipei on July 25 and 26, and Kaohsiung on Aug. 2.
The top 40 teams that emerge are to face off in the finals in Taipei on Aug. 22 and 23.
‘DEVASTATED’: Argentina’s win was a reversal of their 28-24 defeat last week, with Australian forward Fraser McReight adding that ‘we did the same thing last week’ Argentina flyhalf Santiago Carreras punished an undisciplined Australia with 23 points off the tee as the Pumas held on grimly for a 28-26 win in Sydney yesterday to breathe new life into their Rugby Championship campaign. A try-fest beckoned in afternoon sunshine at Sydney Football Stadium, but Argentina needed only one through captain Julian Montoya, with Carreras doing the damage with seven penalties and a conversion in front of a sell-out crowd. A week after letting a 14-point lead slip in a 28-24 defeat to Australia in Townsville, Argentina saw most of a 21-point advantage erased in the final quarter as the
ELEVEN STRIKEOUTS: Blake Snell allowed two singles and two walks against the Rockies as he ended a personal three-game skid with his first win since Aug. 16 Blake Snell on Wednesday struck out a season-high 11 in six innings, while Mookie Betts hit a grand slam in the eighth as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies 9-0 for their fourth straight win. Helped by their third series sweep of the Rockies this MLB season, the Dodgers increased their National League West lead to three games over the San Diego Padres, who lost 2-1 at home to the Cincinnati Reds. Betts went four for five with five RBIs, capped by his seventh career slam on a 3-0 pitch from reliever Anthony Molina to make it 8-0. Andy Pages and
Captain Vijay Kumar led the way yesterday as the Hsinchu Titans claimed the Taiwan Premier League title at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), beating PCCT by 27 runs. The weather was a topic again, but not the rain that played a role in previous matches in the often-delayed tournament. Kumar, who made 80 not out from 63 deliveries, and teammate Vishwajit Kumar (58 from 43) rescued the Titans from a precarious state at the end of the power play in the T20 match. The visitors were put in to bat and struggled to 26-3 as PCCT
China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper on Monday published an essay about Chinese basketball it said was written by LeBron James, but a representative for the NBA star said on Thursday that the article was based on a series of interviews. The paper, better known as the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, had said James authored the essay, “Basketball is a Bridge that Connects Us,” a tribute to Chinese players and fans of the sport written in the first person. “LeBron James Pens an Article in the People’s Daily,” read a post published on the newspaper’s official WeChat account. On Thursday, a representative
RSS