The professional American basketball player DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins recently played his first game in FIBA 3×3. He is currently the most decorated player in 3×3 — ten years ago, he was a member of the USA team that won the gold medal at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2014, and later in 2016, he won a second gold medal as part of the Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro.
Boogie now plays for the Chinese team Wuxi Wenlv Huishan (无锡文旅惠汕), which competes in the FIBA 3×3 World Tour. In the first tournament of the Super3 Quest World Tour, held in Suzhou Shi from September 6 to 8, his team reached the quarterfinals. However, they lost to the Chinese team Shanghai Jiushi (上海久事) with a score of 21-13 and finished in 5th place.
Cousins last played in the NBA in 2022. Since then, he has played in the Puerto Rican Baloncesto Superior Nacional league and the Taiwanese T1 League. In May 2024, he was named the T1 League’s Most Popular Player of the Year for the 2023–2024 season.
A four-time NBA All-Star, Cousins was once one of the league’s top centers. His career took an unfortunate turn in January 2018 when he suffered an Achilles tendon rupture, starting a series of devastating injuries that prevented him from returning to form. At one point, he was preparing to make a comeback to major basketball.
But on February 23, 2024, DeMarcus Cousins announced that he had ended his attempts to return to the NBA. When asked by a reporter if he planned to return to the NBA during an interview, Cousins said, “Honestly, no. I know I’ve had my time there. You know, there was a moment when I tried to do it. But where I am in my life right now, just with everything I have going on outside of basketball, I feel like I’m in a good place. So, like I said, I’m excited about what I have ahead of me and my future. You know, my 12 years in the league were just a small chapter or chapters in my life. And I’m ready to move on to the next and see what’s in store for me.”
Observers and fans anticipate that the arrival of such accomplished players in 3×3 could usher in a new era for basketball.
Foto: Michael Tipton/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
