Naxos: 62 teams at 3x3 basketball tournament

The two-day «Naxos 3x3 2026» basketball tournament wrapped up with 62 teams and 248 athletes in Mandilara Square in Chora, Naxos, as announced on Monday 17 August 2026. The event, staged by the Municipality of Naxos and the Lesser Cyclades in cooperation with the Region of the South Aegean, was held under the auspices of the Hellenic Basketball Federation and the Cyclades Basketball Clubs Union. Entries were not confined to the island: teams travelled from Paros, Tinos, Santorini, Crete and Athens, turning a local sporting celebration into an inter-island fixture.

The programme covered an unusually wide age range, from the youngest mixed categories to the veterans. In Mix U9 the winners were «Protathlites», in Mix U11 «Naxos Bulls» and in Mix U13 «Nootropia». Among the boys, «Dream Team» took the U15 and «Bartselioma» the U18, while among the girls «Bunnies» won the U18. In the adult categories, «Fourth Threat» won the women’s event, «O,ti na’nai» the men’s and «Solo» the over-forties. The top three categories each carried a cash prize of 600 euros. The former international player Giorgos Kalaitzis took an active part in the event, with a separate game for parents and children. The nine-category format allows children and adults to compete in the same event without competing against each other, while mixed categories at the younger ages are now standard practice in Greek mini basketball.

For an island with a steady but limited pool of pupils and athletes, an event of this size has practical significance that outlasts a single day. Basketball 3x3 requires minimal infrastructure, half a court and four players, and for that reason it works well in island communities where indoor facilities are few and their schedules crowded. Sporting activity at the end of the mid-August holiday period also keeps young people in touch with local clubs at a time when daily life on the island is dominated by tourism. The 3x3 game was recognised as a stand-alone Olympic sport and has its own international circuit, which has given a push to local events across the country. For small municipalities it also works as a tourism promotion tool away from the peak of the beaches, since it brings overnight stays from other islands.

The Naxos Port Authority also took part in the event, and the games were played in an open public space in the centre of Chora. The Municipality of Naxos and the Lesser Cyclades has not yet announced whether the tournament will be repeated in the same form in 2027, nor whether it will be folded into a wider programme of inter-island sporting events. The island is at the centre of other developments in public services this year, such as hospital staffing, reported by TodayGrid in «Naxos: an orthopaedist and a biopathologist approved». More from the island on the Naxos page. The Region of the South Aegean supports sporting events on the islands from time to time through sports tourism programmes, without the amount of funding for this event having been announced. The choice of a central public space rather than an indoor court gave the tournament the character of an open event for the whole of Chora.