Episode 244 Snippets: Esteban González of FIBA 3x3

On episode 244 of the Digital and Social Media
Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Esteban
González, Digital Content Manager for FIBA 3x3.
What follows is a collection of snippets from the
podcast. To hear the full interview and more,
check out the podcast on all podcast platforms
and at www.dsmsports.net.
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 244: Esteban González

Esteban’s Career Path
“I was born in Spain 30 years ago and I'm from a
really small village northwest of Spain in Galicia. I
studied advertisement and public relations at the
university and then was kind of lost. I always wanted
to be a journalist, I guess as many of us like, ‘Okay,
I'm too bad to be a professional sports player, so the
easiest way to make it would be through journalism,’
but in the end, they end up doing advertisement and
public relations.

“So when I finished it was like, okay, what should I do
now because I want to work in sports. So I found a
master's degree [program] in Barcelona in sports
communication and sports journalism. So I moved to
Barcelona in 2014. Then did my internship at Mundo
Deportivo, which is one of the biggest sports newspapers
in Spain. I was in charge of the digital newsroom
basically [looking after] some of the basketball coverage
and any other smaller sports because [for] the big ones
they already had one person in charge of every team in
other big sports. So it was doing a little bit of everything
there.

“Once I finished my internship there, there was another
opportunity to do an internship with FIBA in this new 3x3
discipline I'd never heard about before. So I did the interview —
this was 2015 — and yeah, I got the call to join the team. And
once I joined I was just the intern doing all the different social
media communication stuff, like tagging all the different pictures,
so it would be easier to find them on the websites, and doing all
the visuals after every game with the final score. Then I kind of
grew into the role thanks also to my manager who put trust in me
and gave me tons of opportunities because my English was not
really good at the time. He gave me the confidence to grow into
the position and slowly start getting more involved in social
media, having more ideas, and more concepts.

“I ended up being in charge of now all the social
media strategy, content strategy, also digital
partnerships, and everything related to that. The
season is basically the full year, so sometimes you
need to be super well-organized because we have
tons of tournaments going on during the weekends.
So yeah, this requires a lot of good organization
and I also have a really good team around me to be
able to support all the strategy and all the content
we want to put on social media and on the digital
websites.”

On picking up English in general and particularly for social media and
basketball
“So what I did was I started just following all the Bleacher Report, House
of Highlights, Ballislife [accounts], reading The Ringer every day just to
get familiar with all the vocabulary that they were using, trying to watch
all the latest shows, [bought] the Shea Serrano books on basketball and
everything so I could get a good understanding of how people would talk
about the things in a non-formal way because at the end [that] is how we
speak in social media. It was a long effort and a long commitment
because this is something that you don't learn in one year or in one
month, but now I still continue to do all of that so I don't lose any of my
words that I know or the level that I have because at the end the new
words are coming every day and especially now with Gen Z, so I need to
stay up to date with all these new words that they are using.”

On where the basketball social media language and lingo come from
“So basically I think that before — this was 2015-2016 — so [Bleacher
Report and House of Highlights] were like the only main accounts that
were were doing this back in the day. So for me, it was the easiest way to
start doing this. Now, for example, you have Overtime that has accounts,
I think, in every single country in the world. There is Overtime Spain,
Overtime France, and Overtime India — and every one of them has a
different tone of voice to be identified with the audience from that
country. Because at the end there are tons of jokes that some people
could make in Spain that you would never understand because you don't
have that background or you are not following the most popular streamer
in the country and in the end they are the ones dictating this new
vocabulary or these new ways of communicating with with the audience.

“So yeah, in the end back in the day the best way for me to
learn this global basketball language was in English because
they were the pioneers doing that. But now before every
event we also try to look at what are the different trends in
the part of the world that we are going to. For example, if we
have a team in South Korea, we have a nice South Korean
team, I need to go and check, okay, what are the best K-pop
bands? So then I can make some references in the captions
and these kind of things. Okay, what's the latest Blackpink
hit because then maybe I can I can use a caption making a
reference to a Blackpink song. So this is work that I still need
to do in order to stay on top of the latest trends globally.”

An overview of FIBA 3x3
“FIBA is the International Basketball Federation. So it is the world
governing body for basketball. It has more than 212 national
basketball federations and they are in charge of organizing, for
example, the FIBA World Cup that is happening this year at the
end of August in Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They also
have the Continental Cups like the EuroBasket, AmeriCup, the
Asia Cup where the players represent their national teams. It is
also the governing body related to the Olympics as well. So we are
the ones that qualify [teams] for the Olympics. And then 3X3, as
my boss says, we are like the Nespresso and Nescafé — we're a
completely different business unit within FIBA.

“We are in charge only of 3X3 basketball, which is a game played by
three players on the court and one is resting. It’s two teams against
each other, one hoop, half court, first two 21 or 10 minutes, short
ten-minute game, 12 seconds shot clock, and no breaks. So it's quite
challenging physically when you play. We have tons of different
events — we have the professional men's tour, there is the world
tour, we have the professional women's tour, there is the women's
series. Then we also have national team events like the World Cup,
the zone cups like Euro Cup, Asia Cup, AmeriCup. Then we also
have youth events like under 17 zone Cups. We also have under-21
and under-23 Nations league to develop the players of the future.
“This is a very nice overview of our activity — this year we have
planned more than 170 events until December.”

“It's a completely different player because you need to have all
the [skills] — you need to be almost like the perfect player. You
need to be able to shoot, you need to be able to defend, you
need to be able to go inside and fight for the rebound. So it
requires a really specific skill set to be a really good player in
3X3. We had in the past former NBA players come in and when
they realized the game, when they [figured out] how to play the
game, they were already eliminated from the event because it's
so fast-paced that you don't have time to stop thinking. Like,
for example, you celebrate that you did a great dunk and then
you have someone scoring from outside at the same time,
because there are no breaks, you don't check the ball after
every basket. So it's a completely different style of playing.

“Regarding the fans, we don't appeal necessarily to
basketball fans. We also appeal to those who like urban
sports like if you like parkour, if you like skateboarding,
BMX — so this kind of urban sport for us is also a nice fan to
go knock on their doors and say ‘Hey do you know the 3X3
basketball is the urban version of basketball, fast-paced
games or only ten-minute length’ and it’s necessarily the
same profile as basketball. Actually, a couple of years ago we
did a study and from our social media platforms, 70% were
not following five-on-five basketball. So that's a pretty big
indicator that the fan is really different. And also more than
65% of our fans are younger than 35 years old, so we are
appealing to a really young audience here.

“So I think the impression is that our fans or the people
following us on social media are not the same that would go
and watch an NBA game, for example, because the
experience is completely different. So we have the venue
downtown in the city center — maybe you are walking on a
Saturday afternoon and you say, ‘Oh, what's going on here?
Why is there a DJ playing music in the middle of this
square?’ And then you find the venue and we have nonstop
music, we have entertainment during almost every single
break. So when maybe you come to watch basketball and
you stay because it's a completely different atmosphere than
you are used to when you go to an arena, for example.”

On constructing the narrative and the culture for the 3X3 sport
“Well, I think that 3x3 comes purely from street ball and we just
use what was there already on the streets. And then we did
something where players can make a living out of this 3X3 game
actually. We say that we go from the streets to the Olympics. So
basically on digital, we try also to build this narrative. We focus a
lot on the players because in the end our players are not necessarily
NBA stars. We don't have the teams that do this process of creating
the stars. We don't have it. So we need to be the ones together with
the players doing this kind of job. Like, let's try to see what are the
best stories they have to tell, why they prefer to play 3X3 traveling
the world rather than being at home during the year playing five-
on-five on their clubs in their countries.

“For some of the players, it's like ‘I love traveling the world every weekend and
playing in a different country. For example, this weekend I'm playing in South Korea.
Next week I'm in Europe and the next I'm in Canada playing an event,’ and this travel
culture is something that we also want to push in 3X3. Basically, you as a player are
your own manager. You don't have a coach telling you during the game what you have
to do because it's not allowed and you get a technical fault if the coach is yelling from
the stands. So we are also giving the player the flexibility to decide the sponsors, and
who they are playing with because — basically, they create the teams themselves for
the professional circuit. So you can get your 3 or 4 friends and say okay, let's create a
team. Let's start competing in a tournament in the US that can qualify to challenge
Canada that can lead you to the world tour in Europe. So there is this path of going
from your local tournament to the biggest event of the year that is the World Tour
Final or the World Cup. Then if the National Federation picks you for the 3X3 team.
Right now for example for the US basketball fans Jimmer Fredette announced this
year he will start playing 3X3 in the professional tour, so I think it would be a nice
test for him to see if he's able to to keep up with the fast pace and then maybe if he
makes it to the Olympics I think it's the perfect story also for us to tell he was giving
up on basketball but through 3X3 he is still enjoying the game.”

About leaning into the national team element, among other parts of 3x3
competitions
“I think it's a mix of both because during the professional circuit players
represent cities. So basically if you are from the US — for example, this
year we have Team Miami competing on the world tour and if you are
from Serbia you have team Užice. But then when it comes to the World
Cup, the National Federation can select players from different pro teams.
For example, the national team of the US can be three players from Miami
and one player from Harlem or two players from Miami and two from
Princeton. So then you see different storylines like these two teams that
hate each other on the pro circuit, now they need to play together to
represent the US and try to win the World Cup. And of course, when they
are wearing the national team jersey, you are not only appealing to the
sport, you are appealing to the nationality of the people, to the pride of
representing the jersey.

“So it is true that during national team events, you see a spike of
interest because of course you are appealing to not only to the core
fans of 3x3, you are appealing to everyone who likes to support Team
USA as you said. But it also can be the other way around. For
example, a couple of years ago there was a tournament in Slovenia
and what happened is there was a couple on a honeymoon and they
found the 3x3 event and Team Amsterdam was playing and they were
from Amsterdam and they had to leave the city that night. And as
Amsterdam won the two games that they watch, they decided to
extend their honeymoon in that city just to watch Amsterdam play on
the next day. And, happy ending, Amsterdam won the event so they all
took a picture with them and they were like, ‘We never imagined that
we would come here to this city and find Team Amsterdam playing
and now we are fans of the sport and we are following these guys.’”

On how fans discover 3x3
“So we have the hardcore fans who follow every single event and
those are the hardest ones to find. And then we have the ones that
just see a highlight and then we need to convince them to stay. This
is a hard part of the job because it's not that we are competing only
against other sports, you are also competing against Netflix, HBO,
and all the different platforms. So basically we bet on social media
since the beginning of the sport. You can watch all games for free
on on our YouTube platform. You will have the best highlights on
Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook almost two minutes
after they happen. And at the end for us, it's also a matter of
reaching a lot of people to say, hey, 3x3 exists.

“The work was probably a lot of people don’t know, even though
that we are in the Olympics, they don't know that 3X3 is a thing
that happens worldwide. So yeah, it's your job to try to identify
and reach those people by putting out the best content possible.
And then we are also convinced that the people who would follow
the event online might not be the same person that would like to
go to an event on-site because the experience might not be the
same for them. They are not listening to the commentator, they
are not interacting on the YouTube chat, they are not putting a
comment on Instagram. And this is something that is really
important for us is the community aspect of 3X3. We like to say
the 3X3 is a family. Once you start playing, you more or less
always see the same familiar faces on the teams and on the staff.

“So we built this family atmosphere and I think the players also like it
because you are closer to everything. So this family aspect of 3X3 is really
important for us and we will even go and trash talk to the comments on
social media. If we see that someone is criticizing our players or they said
‘Oh I could do this,’ we would say ‘Okay, it’s open to everyone, why don't
you go and try to qualify?’ So, if you come to social media also to try to
embarrass our players, we got their backs and we are going to also fight for
them and try to protect them on social media to build this family
atmosphere.
“Something that is really shocking, especially for the newcomers, is that we
are all in the same hotel. So you just finish one game, maybe you are out of
the tournament or you are having dinner at the table next to the team that
just knocked you out. So it's different. It's difficult sometimes, but it also
helps to be closer to the players and build this family atmosphere that at
the end at least for me is one of the core things of 3X3.”

On activating the players to drive growth and awareness for 3x3
“I think it depends on the kind of approach the team or player wants to have with
us. For a lot of them, it’s super easy. We just go and talk to the player and say
okay, we would like your profile to be promoted on your pages. We would like to
tell your story. Are you happy with this or do you have any story you want us to
tell? And a lot of them say yes. Then in other cases, it’s okay, ‘please talk to the
team manager because he's the one managing everything.’ So it still depends on
the team or on the player that you are talking to. There is not a 100% process for
this, but in the end, we are going to do everything that is necessary to be able to
access the player and be able to tell their story; even waiting outside the
restaurant to ask the team manager ‘Hey what's the best time to talk to this guy?’
or ‘What's the best time to do this interview because we really want to talk to him
and tell his story on why he is playing 3X3 this year?’ So yeah it really depends on
the approach from the different player or team. We just talk to them to find the
best way to work together with them because at the end it is in the best interest of
everyone to grow the sport.”

On the content that resonates on social for 3x3
“Of course, I think everyone wants just to watch like
the best highlights that we can produce, and at the
end, this is how you bring new people to the sport.
Then of course telling the stories of our players is
what is helping us to promote also their profiles, to
also capture their own followers into the sport. So I
would say it's kind of a mix. We need the right
balance between the highlights and the pure game
content and also the stories.

“Not only this, but also the part that we mentioned before — I think it's
also appealing to an audience that we have the DJ playing music during
the full event. So even when the games are being played, the DJ is playing
the music. So I think this is also something that is resonating for more
audience, but may also help us to bring new fans for the entertainment
part of this sport. Like, the freestylers that we have during the
entertainment breaks. This may also be helping us to tell people the story
that when you come to an event, you don't know what's going to happen
next.
“As to the game winners — in 3X3, everything can happen until the last
minute. So we try to push this narrative that we are the most thrilling
urban team sport because games are to 21, so maybe if the underdog starts
scoring from outside they could win the game against the number one
seed because they were just lucky and they made all their shots. So I think
telling those 3 or 4 different storylines is helping us to reach new people.”

On the goals for 3x3 in general and for their social media strategy
“So basically — and this is probably something that a lot of people
wouldn't expect — most of our events are free [to attend]. And then when
it comes to content creation and social media strategy, we have three key
pillars. The first one is to develop stars and help the players build their
own profiles. The second one is to get new fans and the maximum reach so
that we can bring new fans to the sport. And the third one, of course, is
making the partners happy because they are also the ones that are helping
us to be where we are right now. So every post that we put out there has to
at least fulfill one of the three key pillars that we have identified for the
strategy. If it's not bringing value to the partners, if it's not helping us to
bring new fans, or if it's not helping to boost the profile of one of the
players, why are we posting this? So it has at least to be in one of those
categories for us to create that piece of content and put it out there.”

On whether 3x3 tries to build the sport globally or just goes
after the biggest reach regardless of diversity of country
“If you are a fan and you want to follow the sport and you
want to engage with the sport, I couldn't care less if it's from
this country or that country. Then when it comes to us
thinking about the strategy behind how can we find and reach
new fans, it also depends a lot on who is winning during the
last couple of months. For example, if we see that we have a
lot of or we have the Serbian team is winning a lot of events,
we are like okay, let's think how can we try to boost more
people from Serbia. If the team from the United States is
winning? Okay, how can we amplify the noise in the US?

“This is the thinking process there is behind this
side of the strategy and I think it happens a lot
when you have this global sport. Basically, the
success of the team will also bring fans from their
countries because whether we like it or not a lot of
people want to follow the team that is winning.”

The differences and similarities on social media around the world
“First of all, for every platform that we have a presence on for our 3x3
account because at the end, if I don't know how to use a social media
platform, I don't know how I can professionally also try to use it to build
new fans. And I think that something that is really impactful for a lot of
people is when I say that Facebook is for us is still one of the top social
media platforms, because especially in Asia it is still the number one. So
if you say in the US we have a lot of success on Facebook, they will look
at you saying ‘what are you saying?’ It happens the same in a lot of
countries in Europe. But in Asia, Facebook is still the number one and
there are a lot of countries that use Facebook more than Instagram or
more than TikTok. And now with Facebook reels, you are appealing to a
new audience also in the platform that is helping to boost the numbers.

“But yeah I have to use Instagram on a daily basis.
TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. So I try to
spend time myself on the platforms to see the
different trends or what's the viral sound on TikTok
this week. So okay, how can we use it also to do
some content in our profile? I even spend some
time on BeReal a couple of months ago. Okay, what
is this new platform that everyone is talking about?
Is it possible to launch a brand account with this?
Then in the end I thought that was not the best, so
we decided not to do it.

“Discord may be worth the investment of having a
channel for us where fans can go on and discuss. I
still don't know. I use it on a personal basis but is
it worth to have a brand account on Discord? In
the end, these are the questions that only time will
answer and I think you have both you have the
early adopters and the ones that arrive late when
the proper strategy and having thought through
everything really deeply. I think that's the case
nowadays. You have both.

On the annual tentpole events and moments for FIBA 3x3
“I think speaking of the World Cup that is on or the Olympics, that was a
one-week event where what I do for those big events is I hire an army of
freelancers to be able to be present online 24 hours a day. So the events
are happening from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. maybe, but I want someone to be
available also during the night to put content out in those countries that
are awake while I'm sleeping. For example, for the Olympics in Japan, I
had people in Europe, I had people in Asia, I had people in the States to
be able to cover all the time zones. Then I go game by game saying ‘Okay,
this game is this team against this team. This team is popular on the
social media platform, how can I make the best use out of them? Is it
highlights, pictures, memes, captions — I go team by team, game by
game, trying to develop a proper strategy that can resonate with their
own country.’

“Then of course this has to make sense globally because we
cannot prioritize only two teams. So it's a huge effort to build
that plan. But in the end more or less now we already have
the structure after so many years doing this so now it's easier
than before. And in the end maybe you arrive at the event,
you say, okay, these are the star players, these are my top
teams, but at the end maybe they are unlucky they have an
injury and they are not able to perform so you have to rethink
onsite and, ‘Okay, now I need to change everything and start
from scratch because all my five top teams and players are
out because they were unlucky’. So it's complicated, but at the
same time, it's exciting because you never know what's going
to happen once you get on the court.”

About earning and getting coverage from third-party media outlets
and social accounts
“This is a great question and, of course, we can have the best content
out there but if no one is watching then why are we doing this? So of
course we try to amplify the noise first through the players because
they are our number one influencers. If the players are not happy with
the content, then we have a problem. Then the second is national
federations. Like for example, we have to use USA Basketball, Canada
Basketball, Spain Basketball federation because they know who they
have to talk to in their different countries to be able to reach this high
number of people to get more earned media, media value, and these
extra people that are not following us on a daily basis to also become
fans of the sport or just follow this 3x3 game or this 3x3 event.

“So I would say players are our number one speaker
when it comes to the events and daily activity, and then
it's national federations that are the ones that can help
us in every country to identify the media and help us to
talk to them,, introduce them to us, like, okay, how can
we work together? What kind of content are you
interested in? Are highlights of the dunk contest because
we have a dunk contest with professional dunkers in
every event. So that is something that is really cool and
this kind of content also helps us to reach these people
that might not be interested in basketball, but they look
at those guys who are doing crazy stuff.”

On the content that players want to receive
“So I would say most of them want first all the pictures that you can give
them. Second, some of them, for example, they ask for full games because
they prefer to watch the game and then they select the content they want
to put on their channels and they work with their own creative guys to be
able to do mixtapes or to be able to do their own Instagram Reels. So
some of them already have a video editor working with them or with the
team. So I would say that yeah, first is the pictures, then it's okay, send
me my highlights or my full game so I'm able to do more content during
the week or after the event. Because usually, our events are so condensed
that they don't have time to do more content during the week They play,
for example, two games a day, one rest day, two games, one rest day, one
game. And if they are lucky, they play in the final of the World Cup.

“For example, during the world tour or the women's series, they play
two games on the first day, and on the day after they are already
playing the quarterfinals, semifinals, and final. So it's quite hectic for
them. So I always tell them if you want to invest in your social media
strategy, you need to have someone working with you remotely
because we are going to help that person 100%. We're going to give
them access to all the pictures, all the videos, all the highlights in
order for you also to boost your own profile. And if you need any
advice or you need help with someone [about] what's the best strategy
for me on social media, what’s the best channel for me to start — just
come talk to me, and then we can discuss whatever you want, [even] If
I need to stay until 5 a.m. just talking to you, helping you to do the
best strategy possible for your channel, I'm going to do it because it's
good for you and it's good for me and the brand as well.” =

About other 3-on-3 basketball and its effect on FIBA 3x3’s strategy
and growth
“The more people that are talking about any kind of 3x3 game, I think
is good for us because they could find us online. I think that's what I
can say about this. But [Big3] is not the only league, if there are other
3-on-3 leagues around the world that maybe are not endorsed by FIFA
because they don't follow the official rules or they prefer to do any
other kind of rules. But at the end of the day the more people that are
playing any variant of 3X3 is good for us because maybe [fans] get
bored or that season is over and they want to consume [more], so how
can I continue watching more 3x3? Then, as I said before, we almost
have no offseason so we are perfect for that.”

The European country and the non-European
country with the most rabid basketball fans
“So if I go, for example, to South America, I would
say Argentina fans are crazy. I think I had one of
my best basketball experiences in the games in
Argentina where the fans were just amazing, it was
an under-18 competition. Then in Europe, I would
say Serbia, Turkey and if you go to Asia The
Philippines is also crazy for basketball.”

Describe the ideal 3X3 player and how it is different
from five-on-five
“So in 5-on-5 you can be a really good player if you
are maybe just a good shooter, but in 3x3 you need to
be really balanced to be a really good 3x3 player
because you need to run, you need to shoot, you need
to defend, you need to be able to grab rebounds and
fight in the paint. So you need to be a really complete
player, really balanced and then you really have to be
in good shape because it's a ten-minute sprint.”

The best 3X3 player of all time at least in Esteban’s time with 3x3 so far [one
male, one female]
“So if you want to be really entertained on our YouTube channel, we have a video
called I think it's ‘Ten Minutes of Dušan Bulut Highlights.’ He started playing
before I joined FIBA and he's a really good player coming from streetball. So all
the crazy passes that you can think of he was doing them all, the crazy crossovers
he was doing them. He also had the clutch gene scoring all the game-winners. He
was the first international star for us. Now he's not playing the pro tour, so now
we have a bigger scope and you have a guy called Strahinja Stojacic who is really
spectacular. Then you also have Thibaut Vervoort, we call him ‘Must See TV’, that
is a young kid from Belgium who is really spectacular as well.
“Then in the women, this is a really tough question…but you have the Plouffe
sisters [Katherine & Michelle] in Canada that are really good players, Laetitia
Guapo in France — she is really a beast. So to be honest, this is a really tough
question.”

About college basketball in Spain – did Esteban’s school have a
basketball team? And why is college basketball not as big in Europe as it
is in the States with March Madness?
“So basically how university used to work at least when I was there is you
could build a team with your friends, you could win your local university
league, then you will go to the community one, then you would go to the
country one. So this is how it works, but it's not – I play for UCLA for
four years, no, it doesn't happen like that. I think the main difference is
because in Europe you have this professional structure from the big clubs
since you are a kid. For example, you can play for Barcelona in FC
Barcelona basketball as soon as you are three years old. So the university
culture is not needed in Europe because you have the big clubs already
building these players and giving them exposure since they played in the
youth categories.”

The social platform on which 3X3 content performs the best. And also
the one that produces the most value for them
“So speaking about value, I think that number one, that all the partners
and the stakeholders are looking at right now is Instagram because I
think it's the one that at least we use the most on a daily basis. But then
for us, as I mentioned before, we find huge success on Facebook because
we have identified what works best for the platform is the Facebook
reels and then the long-form content that we produce for the platform.”
“Reels work better for us on Instagram and what I do after, especially, is
I give a one or two-hour difference and then I post the same clip as a
native [video] post on Facebook also to to compare. And right now it's
still the native post is working better than reels most of the time.”

The 3x3 player with the best social media presence
and why
“I am afraid I cannot give you an answer because we
have plenty of players that are good doing different
things. But I think the women players understand
this game better than some of the male players. I
don't know if this is a perception of mine or not but
I feel like they work more on their social media
strategy and profile than their male counterparts.”

Who is Esteban’s favorite team in all professional
sports? Also, which is his favorite sports team to
follow on social media?
“My favorite team in any professional sport is a
soccer team Celta de Vigo. That is the club that is
close to my hometown. And then my favorite sports
team to follow…I follow a lot EA Sports and Formula
One, I think Mercedes or McLaren from Formula
One have some of the best content out there on social
media.”

The best meal to get in Barcelona
and where to get it
“So disclaimer, I'm not a person
who goes out or who used to go out
a lot for food. I used to be. I still go
out a lot for coffee. But I think
there is a place that combines both
perfectly, it is called Roast Club
Cafe in Barcelona. So if you have
the chance to go, the food is great,
the coffee is amazing, and the
people working there are also
really nice people.”

The coolest place in the world that Esteban has traveled to and also
the place he most wants to go to that he hasn’t been to yet
“So I had the opportunity thanks to my job to go to Mongolia and
it's an amazing country. The people were really nice, really friendly.
They have like basically one main city that is the capital, that is
Ulaanbaatar, where 80% of the population from the country lives
and the country is huge. I would have loved to spend more time just
visiting the country, but it was amazing to see.
“The place I would love to go next and spend just one month
without internet or anything is Japan. Anytime I’ve gone to Japan
was for work I can't wait to go and just spend three weeks, one
month just visiting every single city or small village in Japan.”

Who's going to win the next FIBA 3x3 World Cup and who's going to
be the player that we're all going to be hearing about afterward?
“Something that I need to mention is during the World Cup we
always have men and women playing on the same court on the same
day. So we have blocks of two men's games, two women's games. So
for this, I need to select both and I think it is a pretty open
competition. So for the men, I think Serbia is one of the favorites.
They have lost only two editions of the World Cup, one of them
losing the final and the other one, they finished fourth. So everyone
would say that they are the favorites. Then you also have the host
that is Austria, you have Latvia that are the Olympic winners,
Lithuania, who finished second last year in the World Cup, and you
have the US men's team that won the World Cup in 2019.

“Then for the women, France won both the World Cup and Euro Cup
last year, so I would say they are one of the favorites. You also have
Canada which won the women's series last year, Spain, you also have, of
course, US which are the Olympic winners. So it's always a pretty open
competition and you never know what's going to happen because this is
how 3X3 is. And it depends.
“The player depends a lot on the team. For example in the men's you can
always count on the Ognjen Matović from Serbia he has won almost
everything that you can win; he won four World Cups, four times the
world tour, three European titles, and his bronze in the Olympics. So
he's, I think, the most decorated player in 3x3 history. So he has the
experience, he has the skills to know how to play those big games and he
knows how to control the game and he's not scared of taking the shots.

Esteban’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
“So for this, I pick two girls that I follow on Twitter and I find really useful
and insightful what they share. One of them is Jess Smith (@WarJessEagle)
that works for Haas Racing and I love how she highlights the best content
from other sports teams out there because it's a nice way for me to get
inspired and see what other [brands] are doing.
Then the other one, if she is listening sorry, I don't know how to pronounce
your name is Fi McCrindle
(
@fmccrindle), she is the account director of Ten
Toes. She used to work for the Premier League and I like how she takes some
takeaways, like for example, how different sports organizations are using the
different social media platforms. For example, she did a thread on how the
different teams are using the collab feature on Instagram and I found it
really insightful. So for me, those are two must-follow people on Twitter.”

Where to find Esteban and 3x3 on digital/social
media
Find Esteban Gonzalez on LinkedIn. Also on
Twitter @EstebGlez.
FIBA 3x3 is @FIBA3x3 on all platforms –
YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat

Thanks again to Esteban for being so
generous with his time to share his
knowledge, experience, and expertise with
me!
For more content and episodes, subscribe to
the podcast, follow me on LinkedIn and on
Twitter @njh287, and visit
www.dsmsports.net.
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net

Episode 244 Snippets: Esteban González of FIBA 3x3

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Episode 244 Snippets: Esteban González of FIBA 3x3