There is plenty of common ground between 3x3 basketball, the urban variation of the traditional game invented by James Naismith, and breaking. They emerged at about the same time and in the same place - nearly 50 years ago, in determined parts of New York City – and they both evolved from the local Hip Hop culture.

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This common ground was emphasized by the International Basketball Federation, FIBA, and the World DanceSport Federation, WDSF, when the two governing bodies had their "street" disciplines feature side-by-side in a FIBA 3x3 World Tour event on 25 August 2017 in the Olympic Capital Lausanne, SUI.

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To make it happen, Ignacio Soriano, 3x3 Events and Partnerships Senior Manager of FIBA, had approached WDSF Communications Director Roland Hilfiker about the possibility of “leveraging the FIBA 3x3 World Tour to test ways of cooperation” between breaking and basketball. SAI did the first viability study for the concept and invited a senior FIBA 3x3 associate to a breaking championship in Antwerp, BEL. The rest is history: after the highly successful premiere in 2017, spectacular breaking battles were integral parts of the tournaments at four stops of the FIBA 3x3 World Tour.