Precious points

According to the FIBA system, the official Olympic qualification ranking list is calculated based on the federation points of each National Olympic Committee, or national association. Points are accumulated, for both genders, by the total of each association's top 25 players' individual points earned at their nine best-performing FIBA-sanctioned events over the 12 months prior to Nov 1.

As a world-class program on the global stage, the Chinese 3x3 women's team had almost secured a top-three finish halfway through the 2023 season, relying on a consistently competitive roster led by veteran guard Wang Lili and head coach Xu Jiamin, who eventually steered the women's unit to rank No 1 by Nov 1.

Ranked 15th at the beginning of the year, the men's program had a long way to go to elevate its ranking. Back then, China had no players in the world's individual top 50 men's rankings.

A bold initiative was then launched as an experimental approach by the CBA, which selected over 30 players from both the five-a-side and 3x3 domestic leagues, spread them out into seven club teams from home and abroad and flew them all over the world to play on FIBA's World Tour events since May.

The target was to fight for ranking points whenever and wherever available across the globe.

"Our team doctor has completed over 73 international flights over the past six months to try to cover each event that our athletes had played. That's proof of how rigorously demanding the project has been for everyone on the journey," said Chai Wensheng, director of the CBA's 3x3 basketball department.

For some key players on the program, such as prolific guard Zhang Ning from five-a-side CBA club the Shanxi Loongs, the travel was sometimes even more arduous than the action on court.

After finishing five games over two days at a FIBA Challenger event in Poitiers, France on July 1, Zhang and his Liman Huishan teammates had to take a long bus ride to Paris the next morning, then had a nine-hour layover at the airport before taking a 20-hour flight with two transfers to arrive in Macao the next day to prepare for the FIBA Masters tournament that tipped off on July 8.

Imagine doing this on weekly basis for half a year, battling fatigue and sometimes injuries as they played elite-level 3x3 matches.

"This was a unique journey on and off the court," said Zhang, who was named MVP at the Chengdu Masters on Oct 22, becoming the first Chinese man to receive the individual award at this level for his tournament-leading scoring total of 37 points.

"The real challenges came from behind the scenes, and these helped toughen us up for our mission on the court," said Zhang, who is now already back playing for Shanxi in the CBA league.

Now with the Paris tickets booked, the Chinese 3x3 program is aiming to reach new heights on the Olympic stage.

"Our goal is clear and that is to break our previous Olympic best," said women's team coach Xu, who led the squad to bronze at the Tokyo Games.

"We have reasonably higher expectations for Paris, which brings pressure and motivation at the same time.

"Yet, we've been conditioned to overcome all challenges on our road to Paris and we will do it again."