Ice Cube Says The BIG3 Is Returning To Its Roots For Seventh Season

The BIG3, Ice Cube’s 3-on-3 basketball league, is back to becoming a traveling road show once a weekend.

A year after they played on consecutive weekend days while traveling to only a few, select cities, the BIG3 kicks off its seventh season on Sunday, June 25 at Chicago’s United Center and then is off to Dallas; New York City; Memphis, Tennessee; Miami, Boston; Charlotte, North Carolina and Detroit in successive weeks.

“That’s our original model for the league,” BIG3 co-founder Ice Cube exclusively shared. “To get back to what this league is all about is just what the doctor ordered.”

Each city will have one day of games featuring six contests, which brings out the camaraderie and competitiveness in the players.

“All the guys get to hang out with each other,” BIG3 co-founder and noted entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz exclusively shared. “They all like seeing each other play.”

It’s all part of the BIG3 getting back on track after Covid-19 waylaid the summer league for three seasons, including cancellation of the 2020 season, a 2021 bubble season in Las Vegas and then last year’s docket of just a few cities.

This season also will embrace the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Snoop Dogg, DMX, Yung Joc — and Ice Cube himself — are among the acts who have performed between games or at halftime, and Ice Cube is planning to use his connections in the industry to host even more old-school and new-school artists, though he declined to name them because some acts haven’t been solidified.

“We pride ourselves on being more than a game,” Ice Cube said, “by being a vibe, really enhancing culture.”

Next year, though, is when the biggest shift could occur. Ice Cube and Kwatinetz are pursuing owners for each team who will have their clubs based in cities.

So instead of just having 3’s Company or the Ghost Ballers, it could be, for example, the Chicago 3’s Company or Miami Ghost Ballers. A franchise could even be based in London, which will host the BIG3 Championship Game and All-Star Game at the O2 Arena on Aug. 26.

“We see this as a global sport,” Ice Cube said.

The sport’s weekly games will be televised live on CBS and Paramount+.

“Our ratings go up every year,” Kwatinetz said. “No one believes it — but it’s on Nielsen, so you can’t lie about it — but our ratings are bigger than NHL and MLS.”

The BIG3 is playing games this year in larger NBA venues. After playing last summer in Dallas’ Comerica Center, where the G League’s Texas Legends play, and Chicago’s Credit Union 1 Arena on the campus of the University of Illinois-Chicago, contests will take place at the America Airlines Center, home of the Dallas Mavericks, and the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls, instead.

Kwatinetz expects attendance to reach 12,000 or more, which it has in the past.

“We’re kicking ass,” he said.

Rumors of the league’s struggles, though, swirled after Shams Charania tweeted last year that Colin Kaepernick had invested in the league to prevent it from shutting down. Charania then deleted the tweet.

“A complete fabrication,” Ice Cube said. “I don’t know who had told him that, but we were surprised to see it, and it wasn’t right … but all’s forgiven.”

Instead, Ice Cube and Kwatinetz insist most of the operational money for the league has come from their own personal financial investments.

“Cube has put his money where his mouth is,” Kwatinetz said. “We both have.”

The league, which once featured retired NBA stars like Allen Iverson, Mike Bibby and Ron Artest is now skewing younger, and most of its players currently play international ball.

But the league, whose best player last year was seven-time NBA All-Star Joe Johnson, still chases the big names.

Citing Lionel Messi going against the grain by joining Inter Miami CF of the MLS as foreshadowing, Kwatinetz expects a notable player or two to surprise some by joining the BIG3 next year.

But it’s not for every athlete.

“We want you if you want us, if you want to play, if you want to still show people what you got. It is professional. So it ain’t like a cakewalk or something you kind of half-ass do,” Ice Cube said. “We want guys that are fulling committed to doing it. So we’re here whenever you’re ready.”