With seconds left in the Olympic final in Paris, Worthy de Jong sank the shot that levelled the game at 16–16 and sent it to overtime. In the extra period, his two-pointer beat host nation France 18–17 and made the Netherlands Olympic 3×3 Basketball champions. He was 36.
He was never the teenage prodigy of Olympic legend. De Jong was born in Paramaribo, Suriname, and was named after Lakers great James Worthy. His family moved to Amsterdam when he was two, and he took up basketball at 11, following his father, a former player. He built a long career in the five-a-side game, earning a Dutch league MVP award and playing at EuroBasket in 2015 and 2022.
Then, he has said, the love began to fade. 3×3 Basketball brought it back. The faster tempo and open court suited his flair, and he found a close-knit group of teammates who believed in each other. That mattered. The Netherlands had finished fifth at the Tokyo Games, and only a few years later the same programme stood on top of the Olympic podium.
The lesson Filipino readers will recognise is persistence. Reinvention at 35, a team that kept faith through a disappointing Games, and a gold medal that arrived when many players would have been winding down.
Success has not made him leave the neighbourhood behind. A court in Amsterdam Zuidoost now carries his name as the Worthy Legacy 3×3 Court, and he mentors young players, hoping to leave Dutch basketball better than he found it.
Now he brings that story to the Gulf. De Jong plays in Dubai for Amsterdam RABOBANK alongside fellow Olympic champion Dimeo van der Horst, in the first FIBA 3×3 World Tour event ever staged in the emirate. Fourteen international teams will compete at Festival Bay, Dubai Festival City Mall, and Filipino fans in the UAE can watch for free.
