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Pitterson-Nattie labels Legends 3x3 a ‘success’
October 25, 2024
Oberon Pitterson-Nattie believes the inaugural Marland Nattie Legends 3x3 Basketball Tournament did justice in honouring the legacy of the former president of the Jamaica Basketball Association.
"It was wonderful, a lot of teams came out and competed in the boiling sun and I'm extremely pleased," said Pitterson-Nattie, widow of Marland.
"When it came down to the playoffs, while some games were one-sided, for the most part it was very close competition, so it's good for the sport and showed just how competitive the players are," she stated.
The tournament was held at the National Stadium courts and saw 40 teams participating in three categories.
Rebels (under-19), Sim's Angels (open female) and Team Nattie (open male) were crowned champions.
According to Pitterson-Nattie, who is also the founder of the Marland Nattie and Oberon Pitterson-Nattie Foundation, more competitions of this nature will help develop players' knowledge in the sport, as 3x3 is far different from full court 5x5 competition.
"Certainly, with this competition it will give us a chance to build players' skills. This is a more skilled game compared to a 5x5 as this requires a certain type of skill to play, it's not just a catch and shoot, this takes a lot of fitness. There's no timeout, it was 10-minute matches and as soon as you score, the other team takes the ball out as they're not waiting," she added.
Pitterson-Nattie, the former Sunshine Girl and head coach, explained that it took a lot of planning to execute the tournament, which was officially recognised by the sports' world governing body, the Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIBA).
"It was a lot of work, especially working under the FIBA regime. We had to build player profiles for each player and then ensure that all the scores were up within 48 hours. My organising team worked overtime in getting everything ready so that FIBA could have deemed it as an official competition, which was part of the plan so that players could have received rankings," she explained.
