Founding London 3x3

London 3x3 was founded by British basketball royalty Alice and Ashley Hamilton in October 2024 to ensure Britain’s best players would play elite basketball all year round, building experience, national ranking, and the sport itself.

Alice, a player herself and the daughter of former GB Basketball captain, Crystal Palace, and Solent Stars guard Ken Walton, and Ashley, a current GB 3x3 star ranked 150th in the world, devised a plan for a professional 3x3 basketball team based in London following the success of GB at the Euro Cup Qualifiers in 2024.

GB won four out of five qualification games, finishing second in the competition, led by Ashley Hamilton’s dynamic scoring.

“Last summer, they had a really good run in the Euro Cup Qualifiers,” said Alice Hamilton, speaking to GB Basketball.

“When they did that, that kind of opened my eyes to what 3x3 was… I said to Ash, ‘This is exciting, let’s find out more,’ and so we started exploring what the world tour looks like and how professional 3x3 works.”

However, to gain access to the most prestigious tournaments and establish a consistent place amongst the upper echelons of professional 3x3 basketball, teams have to build their rankings over a significant period of time.

“So we left it for a little while, but it just wouldn't leave my mind: The fact that there was no professional team in the UK, even though we have such amazing talent here, and we're obviously already performing well on the international stage.

“If we want to keep performing well on the international stage, our players need to be playing year-round. We have to be able to compete with the top teams, and those top teams are all playing together on the world tour for a pro team.”

At the time, Ashley was playing in Germany for the pro 3x3 side SV Wiesbaden, in Germany. When he returned, Alice had set up a company and London 3x3 was born.

However, for London 3x3 to benefit GB’s best players immediately, it needed to attain a high enough ranking to qualify for the major competitions, bypassing a more gradual process.

After attending the pro-teams’ meeting at FIBA Headquarters, Switzerland, in January 2025, and some negotiations with FIBA itself, which was eager to see a professional 3x3 team established in the UK, London 3x3 entered into a partnership with the top 10 ranked team, Princeton 3x3, founded in America by Drive 3x3.

London 3x3: Ashley Hamilton

As part of this process, London 3x3 changed its name to ‘London’, and will use 2025 as a preparation year, competing in major competitions with a squad of both British and American players, before a 2026 rule-change will allow the team to become fully British, both in roster and foundation.

“We’ve kept the experience of the guys that were on the team last year. There are a couple of Americans, along with two of our Brits, who are now playing on the world tour together, and that is with the end goal, as of 2026, the London team will be the UK-based team with a fully British roster.

“We have now played in two world tours, a challenger, and have just played in the third world tour in Vienna this weekend.”

Alice and Ashley set up London 3x3 to provide a platform for British players to play at the highest level, improving their own games as well as benefiting GB Basketball in its efforts to advance the federation’s position within the sport.

Whilst Alice’s immediate concerns are with maintaining the pro team’s top ten ranking, and achieving a fully British roster by 2026, each tournament London 3x3 competes in, each game they win, and even each dunk Ashley throws down all contribute to GB’s overall ranking, which in turn will ensure it will be a mainstay in the elite competitions.

“Ashley Hamilton, as a player, his goal is to play at the 2028 Olympics in LA.

“We, as London 3x3, want to support GB basketball with that goal by providing the year-round opportunity for players to be gaining ranking points, which, in turn, will then allow for GB Basketball to move up those rankings."

“In terms of the pro team’s goals, we would like to maintain that position in the top 10. Obviously, this year is our first year playing there, and the next goal would be that by 2026, we have a fully British roster.

“Continuing to maintain the ranking position as a fully British team is the next goal.”

You can read about how the ranking system works here.

Team success is imperative to everything London 3x3 and GB Basketball want to achieve. But building a product that the fans can be excited about and can be immersed in is at the heart of Alice’s work.

“We are trying hard to build a social platform where people can feel connected with us. We're all about the journey, and we want to bring people on the journey with us. So we obviously, as most people do, push everything on our socials, but also, we are building a community of people who they may love basketball, they may love 3x3, they may love 5x5, or they may just love sport, and we'd like to bring those people together in a slightly different fashion to what most people have.

“The goal is to have live games at a watch party. We hosted our first watch party in London, where we did the World Cup qualifiers for GB basketball and London 3x3s' first two tournaments. We had people down, we had a hoop outside of a sports bar in London, and we had a 3x3 team pub quiz, we gave away some prizes, and we just generally are trying to bring the community together in a different format than what we're used to here in the UK.

“This will also, in turn, hopefully bring in some new eyes on the sport, because basketball, as we all know, is a fantastic sport, and if people get a taste of it, they love it."

London 3x3 Watch Party at Redwood Sports Bar

To get updates about upcoming watch parties or hear about the amazing events being run by London 3x3, have a look at their website here.