The Big3 basketball league returned to Dallas this weekend when American Airlines Arena hosted six games on Saturday.
Actor and hip-hop icon Ice Cube and entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz founded the league to serve as a way for former NBA players to continue their careers. It also ended up serving as an alternative entertainment option for fans who do not follow other summer sports.
It began play in 2017 and tipped off its sixth season last weekend.
“I figured there were a lot of people like me that were out there just hanging around waiting for football season to come,” Ice Cube told The Dallas Express. “So I was like, ‘It’d be cool if there was something cool that could take this void and where you can check out something cool in the summer.'”
“It started to really kind of roll with me and my guy Jeff once Kobe [Bryant] retired after scoring 60 points,” he continued. “He was like, ‘There ain’t nowhere for us to see this dude play no more.’ We just felt like that’s sad. It’s a shame, and there’s probably guys out there that can still hoop but just can’t do the NBA schedule.”
The duo devised a solution: a three-on-three league for former players with a shorter schedule that fills the fans’ need for entertainment during the summer and reaches an underutilized segment of the basketball market.
“Nothing’s going to beat the NBA in five-on-five,” Ice Cube explained. “You’re just always going to be the B version. Three-on-three? Different story. FIBA was really the only sanctioned league, and they’re pretty amateur and basically claim the amateur three-on-three space. We wanted to claim the professional space, and that’s what we did — create the NBA version, in some ways, of three-on-three.”
The emergence of the Big3 has allowed players to prolong their basketball careers for as long as possible and continue to find success at a high level.
“They can continue their career, continue to feed their family, [and] continue to have pride in the skills that they’ve honed since they were eight years old, and everybody’s telling them it was great,” Ice Cube said. “They can play as long as they like. As long as they can handle the level of play, [they] won’t age out.”
This year’s rosters include ex-NBA players like Rashard Lewis, Mario Chalmers, Michael Beasley, Nick “Swaggy P” Young, Jason Richardson, Cuttino Mobley, and Joe Johnson. The league’s coaches and executives include NBA and WNBA legends Gary Payton, Julius Erving, Gilbert Arenas, Lisa Leslie, Nancy Lieberman, Charles Oakley, Clyde Drexler, and George Gervin.
It would have been unfair to expect the Big3 to become a success overnight, but Ice Cube said he has been encouraged by how its fanbase has grown over the years.
“People were coming out at first just to kind of check out, ‘What’s Cube got? What’s going on?'” he told The Dallas Express. “Now, they have favorite teams and favorite players, and they’re rooting for their teams to win. So, it’s really grown in that way.”
Ice Cube attributes the growing fanbase to the Big3’s familiar, physical playing style and unique format and environment.
“They recognize the game,” he said of the fans. “Most people play more three-on-three than five-on-five in their whole lifetime if you think about it. It’s a recognizable game. It’s endorsed by the biggest names to ever play the game — Rick Barry, Dr. J, Nancy Lieberman, Clyde Drexler. It’s endorsed by the best, and it’s the best three-on-three you’re going to see in the world. Those are things I think make it worth checking out.”
“[There’s a] little more banging than the NBA, but the guys like to play that way,” Ice Cube added. “We take the game very seriously, but we’re having fun with it. You won’t get tackled if you go get an autograph from Dr. J. No one’s going to throw you out of the building for getting out of your seat and running over and saying, ‘Hi.’ I think it’s important to make sure that we understand that basketball’s entertainment.”
The league has continued to evolve since its early days as it gained popularity and more former players entered the fold.
“Play has gotten better,” Ice Cube remarked. “The players have gotten stronger, more in shape, and ready to go. The game has really progressed, and we’ve developed a few different rules to just make it better, more pleasing to watch, and more pleasing to play.”
Some unique rules that the Big3 implemented include not using a game clock and playing to a specific point total. To win, teams must score at least 50 points and hold a two-point lead.
“Our guys play hard because there’s no minutes,” Ice Cube noted. “It’s first to 50, got to win by two. How are they going to get it? Sudden death. It’s pretty cool.”
One change this season is the league moving the championship and All-Star games overseas to O2 Arena in London.
“[We just] really wanted to show that the league is international,” Ice Cube explained. “Our thoughts and our vision are international. There’s nothing lost in translation. We recognize, as a global sport … the market is right there. People love basketball, and once you see the Big3, people love the Big3.”
The Big3 plays an eight-game regular season schedule followed by two rounds of playoffs, all taking place in different cities, and just made its fourth trip to Dallas since its inception.
“Dallas has always supported us, even before they knew what it was,” Ice Cube told The Dallas Express. “Year one, 2017, we announced we were coming to Dallas, and [they] didn’t know what it was … They packed the arena and really liked what we were doing, and they came back the next year. It’s been nothing but support and love growing the sport from scratch.”
“It’s really about going where they want you, and Dallas has been great,” he added. “We’ve done things like hold playoffs here, or when we first did our ‘Ballout,’ where the whole league plays, we did it first here. It’s just been a special place for the Big3. We eventually want to have a team here once we start selling to individual owners.”