Belize Makes Long-Awaited Basketball Comeback Abroad

Belize is set to make a long-awaited return to senior men’s international basketball competition. This week, a four-man squad will represent the Jewel at the 2026 FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup in El Salvador, where they’ll face some of the top basketball nations in the hemisphere. The tournament marks the first appearance by a Belize senior men’s national team in years and is part of a broader effort by the Belize Basketball Federation to rebuild and strengthen the sport at the national level. President Jacob Leslie says the federation sees the fast-growing 3-on-3 format as Belize’s best opportunity to compete in the senior level on the regional stage.

 

Jacob Leslie, President, Belize Basketball Federation

“ They’re preparing to participate in the AmeriCup 2026 commencing in El Salvador, October 29th to the 1st of November. It’s a three-on-three competition for senior men’s in the Americas where 26 teams from the Americas will be participating.”

 

Shane Williams

“Now tell us about how long it’s been since we’ve seen a senior men’s Belize basketball.”

 

Jacob Leslie

“It’s been quite a while. I’ve been the president for four years and we’ve never been participating in senior, right? So when I took over we wanted to try to build something sustainable, so we started with the juniors. But at the same time, we can’t leave our senior men not participating. And we think the best way for us to compete right now is at a three-on-three level. ‘Cause at the senior level, there’s a greater pool of competition, right? And for smaller countries, we think we can compete better at the three-on-three. The four teams representing us are Clancy Lopez, Shane Pratt, Phil Fayne and Charles Garcia. So we have two senior guys who are playing – who are well experienced in pro basketball, playing all over the world and we have two of our local guys who we think are still very competitive and the best that we have to offer. So we always want to showcase a pool of what we have in the region and in the Americas but also what we have locally to give that exposure for them. It’s 26 countries across the Americas. So all the big teams, USA, Canada, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico. But for us to participate, we have to get out of our pool play. And our pool play is Guatemala, Colombia and Dominican Republic. So the winner of that group advances. So you can’t come in second. You have to win the group. So Belize has to go out on Thursday where we play those three teams on the same day, win those games, and then advance to play the bigger teams.”

 

The three on three senior men’s team is supported financially through a four year two hundred thousand dollar team grant from the Belize Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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