11 May 2017
NANTES (FIBA 3x3 World Cup) – FIBA 3x3 World Cup 2016 Dunk Contest gold medalist Dmitry 'Smoove' Krivenko (Ukraine) will headline a list of at least 5 professional dunkers at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup 2017 in Nantes, France on June 17-21.
Last year, FIBA opened the possibility for professional dunkers to compete in the dunk contest of the FIBA 3x3 World Cup.
Every participating National Federation can now register an additional athlete for the dunk contest.
Moreover, FIBA has the right to invite any athlete who has won a dunk contest at a FIBA 3x3 World Tour event during the season preceding the World Cup.
In 2016, Smoove and Marco Favretto (Italy) were the only two professionals to take part in the World Cup Dunk Contest.
Five professional dunkers have already confirmed their participation for the 2017 edition.
Smoove is the reigning World Champion.
Rafal 'Lipek' Lipinski (Poland) is a 4-time FIBA 3x3 World Tour Dunk Champion.
Vadim 'Miller' Poddubchenko (Ukraine) is the reigning World Tour Dunk Champion.
Jordan Southerland (USA) won the World Tour Mexico City and Beijing Masters 2016.
Last but not least, Chris Staples (USA) won the World Tour Americas Masters 2016.
The participating national federations have until June 16 to register a professional dunker or one of their 3x3 players to the dunk contest.
The qualification will be held on June 19 at 6.20pm (GMT+2).
This means at least 1 of these professionals dunkers won’t even make it to the Dunk Contest final, which will be held on June 21 at 8.30pm (GMT+2).
FIBA