Kareem Maddox ’11 last stood on the court of a televised American basketball game over a decade ago.
Long before his Princeton Tigers’ Cinderella run to the Sweet Sixteen in 2022, Maddox and the 2011 Tiger squad were in arms reach of a legendary March Madness upset of their own against the basketball powerhouse Kentucky Wildcats.
Tied at 57, future lottery pick Brandon Knight started to make a move for the Wildcats with less than ten seconds left. A Kentucky screen forced Maddox, the Ivy Defensive Player of the Year, in front of Knight with the game on the line. A quick crossover and drive to the basket let Knight float up a tough layup just inches out of reach for Maddox, and the game-winner glanced off of the backboard and went in as the waves of blue in Tampa erupted.
Now, 13 years, a few world tours, and a hosting gig on National Public Radio (NPR) later, America will once again see Maddox on the court for the inaugural Team USA 3-on-3 basketball team. After coming up inches short on college basketball’s biggest stage, the face of American 3-on-3 basketball will now have a chance for redemption on the world’s greatest athletic stage of all — the Summer Olympics.
On this day in 2011, Brandon Knight's driving layup gives Kentucky a 59-57 win over Princeton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats would go on to reach its first Final Four since 1998. #BBN pic.twitter.com/qIfDDeH9uj
— TheCatsPause247 (@TheCatsPause247) March 17, 2023
A Different Game
It is no ordinary feat to make an Olympic debut for Team USA at 34 years old — but Maddox is no ordinary athlete, and the 3-on-3 is no ordinary event. It generally follows the well-known rules of basketball, but with a few key differences that heavily affect the play style. Played in only the half court, to 21 points, and with a slightly smaller ball, traditional threes are worth two, and traditional twos are worth one. This rewards the quick, unselfish play style that Maddox and generations of Tigers have learned at Princeton.
“I think that sharing the ball and being a good teammate are all things that are really part of Princeton basketball,” Maddox told The Daily Princetonian. “There’s such a premium on sharing the ball, getting as much joy from an assist or a charge taken as a basket made. So those things apply to 3-on-3, especially when it’s a fast-paced game.”
The lightning-quick passing seen on the 3-on-3 half court has been reflected in the Orange and Black for decades. Last season, Princeton had the fourth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the nation, and the Princeton offense pioneered by Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril in the 70s was the first quick, movement-based offense of the era — aspects of which are still applied by top offenses today.
With how well the Princeton play style integrates into 3-on-3 basketball, Maddox isn’t the only Princetonian to find success in this variant of the game. Current players have jumped into 3-on-3, with both rising junior Caden Pierce and rising sophomore Dalen Davis slated to represent Team USA in the U23 FIBA 3-on-3 League of Nations at the same time as the Olympics.
“Our guys take pride in moving the ball and sharing the basketball, and it doesn’t matter who scores the points,” Pierce told the ‘Prince.’ “Intelligence is also a huge thing that Princeton basketball prides itself on, basketball-wise and academic-wise. Being an intelligent player in the 5v5 game definitely translates over to the 3v3 game as well.”
A mainstay of Princeton’s offense for many years has been quick back cuts and constant motion, both of which are key points in the 3-on-3 game. With much more of the court open, many easy buckets come from the movement and smart passing that is ingrained in Princeton’s players. In the 3-on-3 game, Princeton’s emphasis on positionless basketball has also come in handy as any player who lacks ball handling or shooting ability on a 3-on-3 team can handicap the offense.
John Rogers ’80, the “godfather of 3-on-3 basketball” and former Princeton basketball captain, has served as a pioneer for Princetonians and 3-on-3. The variations of “Team Princeton” he’s coached have won USA Championships and FIBA tournaments internationally.
“All of these strengths have been thought of by John Rogers, who’s very much the architect of a lot of Princeton’s connection to 3-on-3,” Maddox said. Without a doubt, Princeton and 3-on-3 basketball are closely intertwined.
“It’s all an honor, a dream come true. Growing up I’ve watched all the great teams participate in the Olympics, London, Rio, Tokyo, and it’s the games you tune into,” Pierce said.
Pierce added that he hopes to one day have the opportunity Maddox is set to embark on this summer.
“To be able to win a gold medal with Team USA is the ultimate goal, and hopefully 3-on-3 is a pathway to that,” Pierce said. “I’m just thankful to wear Team USA across my chest.”
From Thesis to Talk Radio
But while the style of 3-on-3 is more elegant than traditional basketball, the road towards qualifying is anything but. Team USA’s regular team of big NBA names was just determined last month, and the road to qualifying in 3-on-3 is a grueling, worldwide tour. The quest to scrap for qualifying points sends players across FIBA worldwide tournaments, and unlike regular team play, the eventual Olympic roster plays the qualifying tournaments as well.
This leads to a long, tiring journey of worldwide games that turns away the vast majority of players — but not Maddox, who had stints playing the traditional game overseas in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands for one season each after graduating from Princeton.
The work ethic that has sustained Maddox through playing in multiple countries and two attempts at qualifying for the Olympics began at Old Nassau. Indeed, the work-hard culture of Princeton is one of the factors that led him to the school.
“I wouldn’t want to come to a place where my teammates are going out and raging every night, not caring about their schoolwork,” Maddox told the ‘Prince’ during his senior year at Princeton.
But there’s always been more out there for him than just basketball.
“I always see things in terms of the story,” Maddox said.
As an English major at Princeton, Maddox certainly learned his way with words, but it would ultimately be his voice that would shape his career.
Maddox began his post basketball career in audio journalism, working at KDRW in Los Angeles before becoming a producer at KUNC, the Northern Colorado affiliate of Colorado Public Radio. He would eventually get behind the mic for the first time as a host for Northern Colorado’s edition of All Things Considered, covering local news during the most listened-to afternoon news radio broadcast in the country.
“In general, I’ve always enjoyed getting into radio and listening to just great storytelling wherever I’ve worked,” Maddox added. Some of the stories Maddox has helped produce range from a tale of a Peloton for horses to a series on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Despite trading a basketball for a microphone, headset, and Audacy (formerly Radio.com), Maddox’s basketball career was far from over once he stepped out of FitzRandolph gates. Two hours south of the KUNC studios in Greeley, Colo. is the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where Maddox would train to achieve his Olympic dreams.
After seven years in public radio and podcasting, Maddox left it all behind in 2020 to go all in on hopes of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. Car packed, he began his trip down Interstate 25 to commit to his 3-on-3 journey, and never looked back.
The Face of the Game
Maddox’s success in 3-on-3 began even before he left his day job. He obtained a 3-on-3 Nationals title and MVP award at the facility in 2018. He followed this with an even more successful 2019 with FIBA World Cup and Pan-American Games 3-on-3 gold medals and a title defense at Nationals. His efforts pioneering American 3-on-3 would not go unnoticed for long and he would soon be named to Team USA for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
However, it wouldn’t be quite so simple. In the freshly created Olympic event, the United States sat just outside of the auto-qualifying FIBA ranking spots, sending them to Austria to play their way into Tokyo through a qualifying tournament. The quick pace and short games of 3-on-3 make upsets more likely, and accordingly, the Netherlands would trounce the United States in the quarterfinals and eliminate them from contention for the Tokyo Olympics.
“I think my past self would be very pleased about the fact that I set my goals high and risked failure, and actually successfully achieved failure in the last qualifying round,” Maddox continued. “And working through that, kind of bouncing back, I think I would be very proud of if I knew that all the way back in 2011.”
While the loss was heartbreaking, that wasn’t the end of the road for the 3-on-3 specialist. After considering calling it quits, he came back with fresh faces and threw himself back into a gauntlet of FIBA Masters and Challengers tournaments from Mongolia to the Philippines, from Hungary to France.
“You get to have so many experiences having this crazy trip around the world. So, you find these gems and places I never would have heard of before,” Maddox said. “Like we go to Penang Island, Malaysia, which is famous for street foods and its influence of all these different cultures from the region. And it just all comes together and hits you hard on this former spice trading post while you’re walking down those streets on your way to play a basketball game.”
The grind of smaller international tournaments would pay off and in March of this year, Maddox’s Olympic dreams would become a reality when he was named to Team USA yet again, but this time with an auto-qualifying FIBA ranking for the Paris Olympics.
Wearing the Red, White, and Blue
There’s a certain expectation of winning associated with stepping out on a basketball court with the birthplace of the game on your chest, but Maddox is ready.
“I’m honestly just excited to play these games at night with a worldwide audience,” he said. “Being able to compete on that platform is going to be amazing.”
After coming up short in 2021, Team USA appears to be better equipped to make a run at gold in Paris. Maddox, along with Canyon Barry, son of NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry, now have three more years of experience around the 3-on-3 circuit since the Dutch upset. They’ve added the lethal shooting and big name of Jimmer Fredette, former college basketball Player of the Year, and are backed up by former Division II standout Dylan Travis.
The group has been building chemistry and playing together on the circuit for the past year, picking up a silver medal at the 2023 World Cup together. The Olympic gold medal hopes are high by virtue of being an American basketball team and ranking No. 2 globally, only behind the 2023 World Cup gold medalists, Serbia. Pressure will be high on the inaugural 3-on-3 basketball team from the United States.
But while the expectation of a medal looms large, Maddox is more excited to write his Olympics story off the court.
“I’d say specifically, the opening ceremonies are what I’m most excited for,” he added. “I’m thrilled that it’s going to be different with the boats on the River Seine. It’s all a once-in-a-lifetime experience … but I’m just going to lock in for the moment.”
Maddox may not yet have the name recognition of NBA Hall of Famer Bill Bradley ’65, the last Princetonian to touch a basketball for Team USA at the Olympics, nor that of teammate Fredette, but he is the face of the USA in one of the fastest-growing Olympic events. 13 years after his last heartbreaking appearance in front of a national audience seemed to mark the end of his story, Kareem Maddox will get to add another page on the courts of Paris.
Tate Hutchins is an associate Sports editor, staff Audience creator, News contributor, and contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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