There have been many sports league that have been created and hoped to have the staying power, like the four major ones in North America in the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB). Three years ago, one of the most recognizable faces in entertainment, first in the musical genre “Rap” to an actor on the silver and small screen co-founded a league that replicates the joys of playing half-court basketball that features now a dozen teams made up of former stars from all walks of life that is defying the skeptics and beating countless odds.
In 1988, award winning rapper, actor and entrepreneur O’Shea Jackson, Sr., better known as Ice Cube, launched more than a creative revolution he established a business plan.
That business plan consisted of the 50-year-old father of four taking his own experiences growing up as an African American in the rough inner city of Compton, CA, package it for mainstream America to hear and sell it for millions of dollars.
That plan first began with him conquering the music world, where he introduced a new genre called “gangsta rap” and “political hip hop.” He then took the challenge of conquering the entertainment worlds of movies and television that displayed the comic and tragic parts about the community he grew up in. First on the silver screen with pictures like 1991’s “Boyz N the Hood; “1195’s Friday;” 2000’s “Next Friday; 2002’s “Friday After Next;” 2010’s “Lottery Ticket” and many more.
He was able to bring two successful movie franchises he was a part of in the “Barbershop” and “Are We There Yet?” from the silver screen to the small screen in “Barbershop: The Series,” which lasted for one season on “Showtime” in 2005 and a three-season (2010-2013) sitcom arc of “Are We There Yet?” on the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) network.
In 2017, Ice Cube tested his patent formula in all regards the toughest arena yet, the sporting arena when he launched the BIG3 the world’s first pro sports league based on a sport from the so-called “hood,” which is better known as three-on-three pickup hoops.
“We drew this from the neighborhood,” Mr. Jackson said to “HBO Real Sports” Andrea Kramer. “We taking that spirit and saying, ‘Why leave it on the streets? Why leave rap music on the streets? Why leave our movie ideas as such ideas?’ Let’s elevate that spirit to the professional level.”
This sports league is the latest thing Mr. Jackson has taken from his upbringing and brought it to life for all to see.
The idea behind the league like each of first two challenges Ice Cube has conquered and became great in is simply based.
You cut a basketball court from 94 feet into 47 feet. Pit three guys on one team against three others, just like what takes place on every street corner in the U.S.A. each spring, summer and fall day after school on a school playground, an indoor gymnasium, or a recreational park.
The main difference is the players are former professionals that played in the NBA or overseas that aged out or had to retire because no one wanted their services any longer, that are not ready to hang up their high tops.
“Some people just want to get fat. They don’t want to play anymore. That’s fine,” Cube said. “You can come sit by me. But if you want to play, we got a place for you.”
When the BIG3 was unveiled three summers ago, skeptics came out of the woodwork saying that this idea has no chance. Doubtful that there would be a place to watch in person or on television greybeards play a slower and lower brand of basketball.
Since it’s beginning those slow greybeards that take the hardwood in the “Big 3” have nothing but a competitive swagger, confidence, joy and will to want to play and win.
Cube said to Kramer that what he has seen the players on the floor still got the goods in a half court setting.
“These guys are ballers, and we should celebrate that,” he said.
The other role that has allowed the BIG3 to be in position to have sustained success is Ice Cube’s relentless support in this latest venture of his. When it is time to advertise the league, the co-founder and co-chief executive officer (co-CEO) provides it himself, from dressing in short sleeve shirts with the “Big 3” logo 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If the crowd in the arena on gameday needs some extra entertainment, Cube will grab the mic right on the spot and bring the necessary energy needed to get the crowd involved.
Ice Cube even travels from city to city along with the players of the league. Being right there in the audience always in the front row right alongside his wife Kimberly to manage every detail of every event.
A mogul worth an estimated $160 million travels the country for the BIG3 on a tour bus night after night.
Cube said to Kramer that one night during one of the first three seasons of the BIG3 he and his wife of 27 years Kimberly Woodruff watched basketball all night, slept for a little bit, got on the bus the next morning at about 3 a.m. His wife he added is as much into the league as her husband is saying with a smile, “She’s an owner too.”
It is that kind of hustle and grit that makes Ice Cube feel that he can make this venture a long lasting one, even though he has no experience in this field and where many as he said think he is still a “rapper.”
“I feel like that’s what a lot of people who are skeptics on this idea are saying. You know, that I shouldn’t be here.”
Cube told Kramer that he should be here because he had a great idea, the knowledge to bring into existence and the connections to players that formerly played pro basketball that wanted to be part of something that either gave them a chance to continue playing the game that they love or be involved in it in some capacity.
The idea for the BIG3 came to Mr. Jackson, Sr. decades ago as a young man, who played pickup basketball and famously rapped about it in the song “It Was a Good Day,” that he put together with the help of Chris Jasper, Ernest Isley, Marvin Isley, Ronald Isley and Rudolph Bernard Isley.
The idea for the BIG3 really kicked into high gear for Ice Cube when he watched his favorite pro team, his hometown Los Angeles Lakers on the night of Apr. 13, 2016.
This was the night where future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant scored 60 point on 22 for 50 from the field, that included six made threes (6 for 21 3-Pt.) and 10 for 12 from the free throw line in 42 minutes in the last game of his 20-year NBA career, a 101-96 win versus the Utah Jazz on ESPN.
“I’m watching Kobe Bryant score 60 points in his last game, and he’s retiring. This is his last time we can pay to see him play.” Cube said. “Something’s wrong with the universe when we can’t watch our favorite athletes play when we know they still got game.”
Ice Cube took that anger and disappointment and with the help of his business partner for more than 20 years Jeffrey Kwatinetz built a league for recently retired NBA stars.
To bring to the forefront of how confident both men felt that this idea would work, Kwatinetz asked Cube that if he was ready to “burn the ships and go for it” when they announced this new venture on Jan. 11, 2017 at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel in New York, NY, Cube’s answer to that question was, “Let’s burn the ships.”
Cube told Kramer that “burn the ships” means that they have landed into this new territory of pro sports and there will be no turning back.
“To make sure we don’t go back, we burn the ships,” Cube said.
Along with “burning the ships” a lot of money has been burnt as well. Both Cube and Kwatinetz have invested millions of their own money into the BIG3.
“It wasn’t about a sports league. It was a great idea,” Kwatinetz said to Kramer, adding, “We’re not making money, but we’re not supposed to make money. I mean, the UFC lost money for 9-to-10 years. I, mean the WNBA still loses money.”
It is those reasons that many in both Cube and Kwatinetz close circle that told them to not take this challenge on. They even as Kwatinetz said many begged them not to form the BIG3 saying that they were “crazy” to try.
They built the BIG3 anyway and indeed some of the greats looking for that last moment in the spotlight or are not ready to walk away from the game. Greats that have played or are playing in the “Big 3” this season like 2001 Kia MVP and Hall of Famer Allen Iverson, Stephen Jackson, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Dahntay Jones, Rashard Lewis, former No. 1 overall pick in 2007 draft Greg Oden, Josh Smith, Gilbert Arenas, Mike Bibby, Cuttino Mobley, Carlos Boozer, Jason Terry, Al Jefferson and many more.
When Kramer asked Arenas former Golden State Warrior, Washington Wizard, Orlando Magic, and Memphis Grizzlies why he is in the BIG3 he said because he is a fan of Ice Cube and that he just “wanted to play against his old friends again, and old competitors.”
Arenas, who plays for the “Enemies” added that about how competitive it is out there that it is the same players and while they are a little bit older and are a step slower that competitive spirt and will to win a game is still there.
For other players like former Phoenix Sun, New York Knick, Dallas Maverick and Miami Heat forward/center Amar’e Stoudemire are using the BIG3 to claw their way back into the NBA.
“I love to compete,” Stoudemire said to Kramer. “So, it keeps me in shape in the summertime. It allows the world to still see we can still play.”
“For guys like myself who are looking to make an NBA return, it’s great to compete at a high level.”
As the BIG3 pushed forward hopefully for the next decade, Ice Cube hopes to recruit his dream list of 20 players to join the “Big 3” like Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter-when he decides to retire from the NBA.
When Kramer asked if he could sell those greats on joining, he said that it is not about him selling them. That the BIG3 sells itself.
“Some of these guys will play for free. They already got money. A lot of them don’t have championships, and you can get one in the BIG3,” Cube said.
She also asked if a “Big 3” title matters to these guys? He answered, “Ask Kenyon Martin?”
The former No. 1 overall pick in 2000, who played 15 seasons for the then New Jersey Nets, now Brooklyn Nets, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks and Milwaukee Bucks, played in back-to-back NBA Finals for the Nets in 2002 and 2003, losing in a four-game sweep to Bryant and Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal and the Lakers and then to future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan and fellow Hall of Famer David Robinson and the San Antonio Spurs in six games.
When Martin’s squad Trilogy defeated the 3 Headed Monsters 51-46 in the inaugural BIG3 Championship Game, he cried.
Other former NBA greats have found a second career in the “Big 3.” Not as players but management.
The BIG3’s Commissioner is NBA champion and Hall of Famer Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, who played 15 seasons in “The Association” with the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets.
The Coaches of the now 12-team league include fellow Hall of Famers Julius “Dr. J.” Erving of Tri-State; George “Iceman” Gervin of Ghost Ballers; Rick Barry of the Ball Hogs; Nate “Tiny” Archibald of the Aliens; and Gary “The Glove” Payton-who during 17-year career with the then Seattle Supersonics, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat was known played with a chip on his shoulder, and how he talked trashed with his opponent, which Drexler saw up close. Payton has brought that to the “Big 3” as the coach of the 3 Headed Monsters, where one of his players is his former teammate with the Supersonics for five seasons (1998-2003) Rashard Lewis.
“People want to see roughness. They want to see realness. They want to see guys out there talking crazy to each other, talking trash,” Payton, who played for the Supersonics from 1990-2003 said to Kramer. “And that’s what they want to see here.
The BIG3 also consists of two of the great women to ever grace the hardwood in Hall of Famers in three-time WNBA MVP, eight-time WNBA All-Star and four-time Olympic Gold Medalist Lisa Leslie, coach of the Triplets and Nancy Lieberman, coach of the reigning “Big 3” champions Power.
“I actually came last year and sat with Ice Cube, and I loved it,” Leslie said to Kramer about joining the BIG3 this season. “I just fell in love watching it.”
“For me to have the opportunity to coach it’s been great.”
Leslie added that by her and Lieberman being a part of the BIG3 says that no matter what your gender, if you can have an impact and make a team better you should have an opportunity to show your skills either on the hardwood or on the sidelines.
To put the growth of the BIG3 into clearer context this season, the league has grown from eight teams the first two seasons to 12 in its third season. Its tour has grown from 10 cities to 18 and it has gone from being broadcast once a week on FOX Sports 1 to now Saturdays and Sundays on CBS Sports Network and on CBS, with an average per game viewership of three-quarters of a million people. The ticket sales at arenas continue to rise, with the actual attendance according to Kwatinetz being at about 10,000 per game.
Kwatinetz said to Kramer that the numbers the BIG3 is pulling in for games are more than most NBA teams do. He also said that the BIG3 is outdrawing attendance in WNBA arenas both live and on television and that they are outdrawing Major League Soccer (MLS).
The idea for the BIG3 first began when Ice Cube saw one of the best players to ever play on the NBA hardwood in Kobe Bryant retire when he still had some gas left in his tank in terms of playing. He took that emotion, coupled it with how he played basketball growing up in Compton, CA and with the help of his longtime business Jeffrey Kwatinetz made it a reality, that has seen steady success.
They want to be around for its continuous rise, which is why they turned down an offer to sell the BIG3 which was 10 times the initial valuation of the league.
“If it works, our grandkids are going to look at us can call us dummies for the rest of our lives,” Cube said to Kramer about not selling what he co-created.
In 1989, O’Shea Jackson, Sr. took what he witnessed during his upbringing in Compton, CA, the good, the bad, and the ugly and put it on display first in music, and then in movies and television to the masses. That formula has worked very well for him and made him wealthy, and successful, and committed to bringing others along from the ride. So much so, that the cheapest ticket to attend a BIG3 event is $12. That means an entire family can see pro basketball played live, something that is not always the case with the NBA, especially today.
His latest venture in pro sports with the BIG3 continues to grow, with the expectation of a profit to be turned in Year 4, according to Kwatinetz. That means Ice Cube, the guy who his skeptics say he is just a rapper, now a Hollywood great could add the title of sports mogul to his resume. For him it comes down to simply seeing everyone involved happy and fulfilled.
“Players happy. Fans happy. Network happy. Sponsors happy. Viewers watching on TV happy. BIG3 is the happiest place on Earth,” Cube said.
Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 7/30/19 edition of HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” with report from Andrea Kramer; The rap song, “It Was a Good Day,” by Ice Cube from www.google.com; https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscore/201604130LAL.html; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Oden; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashard_Lewis; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Payton; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenyon_Martin; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amar%27e_Stoudemire; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Leslie; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Cube; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big3#teams.
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