Team USA 3x3 falls to 0-4, and Jimmer Fredette's Olympic run may be over

AT THE GAMES — Team USA arrived in Paris as one of the favorites for the gold medal in 3x3 basketball, but the men's team led by former BYU star Jimmer Fredette has been anything-but impressive.

The United States fell to 0-4 in pool play with a 21-19 loss to Latvia — the Americans' second of the day Thursday following a 20-18 loss to Lithuania — when Fredette could do nothing but watch, coach and diagram plays during timeouts.

The 35-year-old former college star who came out of retirement to go to the Olympics with 3x3 hoops limped off the court with an apparent groin injury Wednesday in the final three minutes of the U.S. loss to Poland. A member of the medical staff could be seen massaging Fredette's left upper thigh while the former BYU standout visibly winced in pain.

Before Thursday's loss to Latvia, which was delayed by weather, Fredette came out of the tunnel with teammates Canyon Barry, Kareem Maddox and Dylan Travis, but did not go through warmups and only helped coach the team from the bench as Barry finished with a team-high 10 points and three rebounds.

Fredette has been officially described as "game to game," but doubts remain about his availability for the remainder of the tournament. The United States has three games remaining in pool play, beginning Friday against France.

Travis described an "emotional scene" as Fredette tried to fight through the injury, per Yahoo Sports.

"We all shed some tears," he said. "He has worked his whole career and came out of retirement to do this."

But the 31-year-old former Division II champion at Florida Southern was realistic about Fredette's future.

"Yeah, I think you've got to prepare like it's us three and hope for the best that he can come back," he said.

The U.S. men aren't the only struggling team in the Olympic 3x3 tournament, which debuted at the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021. The United States' women, led by college star Hailey Van Lith, lost their first three games of pool play before knocking off Spain 17-11 on Thursday.

Van Lith and teammate Cierra Burdick are the only players on the women's team that won the 2023 World Cup, with two-time WNBA all-star Rhyne Howard replacing Linnae Harper and three-time WNBA all-star Dearica Hamby called up after Cameron Brink's unfortunate ACL tear in June.

"We're the most inexperienced team here," Burdick told Yahoo Sports. "We've got a lot of skill, a lot of talent, but that doesn't win 3x3 games."

The women's program can be deeper than the men's, though, because of FIBA rules requiring 3x3 players to accumulate points on the world tour in order to be eligible to compete in the Olympics. The WNBA's season is significantly shorter than the NBA's, so Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Lebron James (et al.) didn't go to the 3x3 world tour stops to collect points.

To that end, the men's team of Fredette, Berry, Maddox and Travis has plenty of experience together. Their issue is depth and talent — players like Durant, Curry or Jayson Tatum simply aren't available.

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