The Serbian World Cup winner had casually mentioned in the pre-event press
conference that he was looking forward to a holiday after collecting the $20,000 top prize

Dusan Domovic Bulut: as it is, the name sounds intimidating enough. What chance, then, when you face him in a game of 3x3 basketball?
On Friday night, in front of a cheering crowd — no prizes for guessing they were mostly Filipino — Bulut lived up to his reputation as the world’s best basketball player in its truncated format by powering Novi Sad Al Wahda of the UAE to a historic hat-trick in the FIBA 3x3 All Stars at the Al Gharafa Sports Complex.
The Serbian World Cup winner had casually mentioned in the pre-event press-conference that he was looking forward to a holiday after collecting the $20,000 top prize.
On Friday, he proved he was not joking as Novi Sad Al Wahda clinically demolished all opposition to bring the curtains down on the fourth and last edition of the FIBA 3x3 All Stars after which Qatar will be part of the World Tour programme.
“It is a great feeling to win the FIBA 3x3 All Stars for the third time in a row,” the 30-year-old said after his side thrashed Ljubljana 22-12 in the final.
“It is always great to play in Doha and a third straight win here is the icing on the cake,” he added.
Ljubljana, the 2016 FIBA 3x3 World Tour winners, fell woefully short in the title-deciding match despite the presence of shooting ace Jasmin Hercegovac  in their ranks.
Hercegovac  emerged as the leading scorer with 23 points in three matches, but the number four 3x3 player in the world was limited to just four points in the final, with Novi Sadd Al Wahda hardly allowing him to get into a rhythm.
Bulut had been sweeping most of the MVP awards on the 3x3 circuit and it was the same old story in Doha too.
Although he had an indifferent start to the event, scoring just two points in the quarter-final against Manila, “Mr Bullutproof” raised his game several notches when he took to the court in the semi-final against Doha. Doha, the champions of the inaugural edition in 2013, were represented by Tanguy Ngombo, Erfan Ali Saeed and Adamu Saaka, but they were no match for Bulut’s heroics.
He peppered the loop with long-rangers to score a whopping 14 points in a ridiculously easy 21-8 win. It was virtually a one-man show as the Doha players found it hard to stop his bursts towards the circle or his shots from the far court.
The winners received their cheque from FIBA Vice-President Hamane Niang and Qatar Basketball Federation President HE Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahaman al-Thani. Bulut was tied second in the scoring list with teammate Dejan Majstorovic with 21 points. Majstorovic extended his team’s domination to the Shoot-Out Contest, where he scored 14 points, just one shy of the all-time record.
The final edition of the FIBA 3x3 All Stars brought together the best players in the format according to their individual world ranking.
Filipino schoolchildren in Qatar also entertained the crowd with their spirited acrobatic drills between games.

RESULTS
Quarter-finals
Ljubljana 22 McGill University (CAN) 11
New York Harlem NBA 21, Saskatoon 19
Doha 21 Hamamatsu 11
Novi Sad Al Wahda 18, Manila 11
Semi-finals
Ljubljana 22 New York NBA 14
Novi Sad Al Wahda 21 Doha 8
Final
Novi Sad Al Wahda 21 Ljubljana 12