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Big3 brings summer festival feel to basketball with barnstorming tour
Allen Iverson of 3's Company reacts in the game against the Ball Hogs during Week 1 the BIG3 season at Barclays Center on June 25, 2017 in New York City.  Mike Stobe/Getty Images

Big3 brings summer festival feel to basketball with barnstorming tour

The co-founder of the basketball league that’s the talk of the sports world knew that this venture would be different, and not just because his name is attached to it.

“People had never seen seven-footers play 3-on-3 basketball before, this is a battle of the gargantuans.” Ice Cube told Yardbarker during the BIG3 media day late last week in New York in Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers. Other big names – Allen Iverson headlined a group of former NBA and international hoopers – and savvy sports executives finally brought to life the much-anticipated league over the weekend. Over 15,000 people came to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center for the first set of games, teasing the FOX Sports 1 audience that will watch the games in prime time on Monday nights throughout the summer.

The legendary rapper, actor and businessman believes that breaking new ground had to come from connecting with NBA fans that miss the league during the summer. “It’s because I’m a fan,” Cube said on why he decided to build this new venture separately from the NBA or another traditional sporting body. “I’ve been proactive all my career, I never really waited for anybody. I’m coming from a fan perspective, took that approach and kept moving to get people to see the vision.”

And though it’s easy to be spoiled by the modern NBA product of long-range shooting and youthful vigor of its best players, the early returns, at least in terms of the in-arena fan experience, were better than one might have expected.


A guard, right, watches as Trilogy player/captain Kenyon Martin, left, gives an autograph to a fan leaving the court after playing Game 4 in the BIG3 debut.  AP Photo/Kathy Willens

The aura at Barclays was far different than any other sports setting you’d ever see. Yes, there was the familiar energy of stars coming out for anything that happens in the City That Never Sleeps. But if you take the crowd of a big-time boxing, MMA or wrestling card (think one of the traditional WWE pay-per-view events), and mix it with the interactive, all-encompassing setup of a musical festival, you have something that really hadn’t been seen in basketball before. In and around Barclays was a kaleidoscope of hoops jerseys, many of the participating players.

That said, with having four games for the price of one, an interesting wrinkle to the BIG3 was the waiting time for teams playing the later games. Between the locker rooms and media lounges, anxious players and coaches were trying to balance eagerness with restlessness. Some guys used the time to engage with the crowd, notably Trilogy’s Kenyon Martin, who made a point to take photos with anyone with one of his jerseys from his NBA career.

The waiting was a unique challenge for the teams who played late in the day. “I think it was that we sat in the locker room and we waited too long,” said Andre Owens, who led Allen Iverson’s 3’s Company squad with 20 points and 15 rebounds in a game where both their team and the opposing Ball Hogs struggled to get a good rhythm going. “We got here at maybe 12 o’clock, sat around and were anxious to play. Finally got out to play and couldn’t shake the rust off, but it’s all good. Sitting in that locker room drains you.”


Andre Owens of 3's Company speaks in a press conference after playing the Ball Hogs during the first BIG3 stop at Barclays Center on June 25, 2017 in New York City.  Mike Stobe/Getty Images

Owens, himself, was one of a handful of players that were relatively unknown to the BIG3 crowd. An undrafted free agent with the Utah Jazz in 2005, Owens made his bones largely overseas with several teams in Serbia, Russia and Ukraine. Yet it was in the league’s combine where Iverson, the player-coach and Hall of Famer guard, took to the Indianapolis native and made him the #2 overall pick in the draft. It was safe to say that Owens was validated in being that pick; with A.I. only scoring two points, it was Owens who Iverson trusted to lead the way.

Speaking during the media day on Friday, the 36-year-old told YB that the BIG3 is stripped of the politics that he’s experienced along the way in his career, allowing him the chance to let his game shine some. It spoke a bit to what Ice Cube himself at discussed when it came to some of the lesser-known players. “They can get a little redemption,” quipped Cube. “A lot of people think they can’t play for whatever reason or they weren’t NBA-ready at the time or they couldn’t last, but I think guys have a whole different attitude and a lot to prove to make names for themselves now. They may have not been household names when they were in the league, but now they’ve got the opportunity to do that. I think the younger dudes and the unknown guys will seize the moment the most.”


BIG3 Basketball League founder Ice Cube, center, applauds during Game 1 of the league's debut. AP Photo/Kathy Willens

In terms of seeing the talent, how the in-arena vibe and game play translate to television certainly remains to be seen. The league’s 24-hour tape delay, a seemingly odd and counterproductive wrinkle in the era of multiple screens and social media, could steal some of that thunder away from the raw energy that filled Barclays on Sunday afternoon. And yet, in a unique way, the delay acts as insurance against the hubris which killed many a start-up pro league before it. Millions witnessed the XFL burn in flames after it brashly dared to say it wasn’t the NFL. Years after that combined WWE/NBC fail, the UFL (United Football League) foolishly played its schedule concurrently with the NFL and college football. Various soccer leagues had both financial and talent issues, even Major League Soccer, which has taken a couple of generations to find solid ground.

The chatter around the games themselves has certainly spoiled some of the anticipation for the TV product. No league in the history of sports has every started off firing on all cylinders, and with injuries to Jason “White Chocolate” Williams and Corey Maggette, a limited Iverson and the winner decided by which team gets to 60 points first, the cynics have rightful concerns about the on-court product. (To be honest, we take for granted how long a basketball game can be. Now imagine four of them being played in a building over a five-plus hour span. TV edits will be crucial in this first season.)

Yet, the BIG3 was blessed with largely entertaining games with that physical intensity that has been drawn out of the current era of the NBA. The aforementioned Owens wasn’t the only player to impress as Rashard Lewis, Jermaine O’Neal, Al Harrington, Reggie Evans shined in the games. And the applause for former veterans such as Cuttino Mobley and Moochie Norris, whose NBA careers ended due to health concerns, along with Muhammad Abdul-Rauf – the former Chris Jackson who was the Colin Kaepernick of a bygone era – were a testament to Cube’s hopes for players of all likes finding some hoops redemption.


LL Cool J, second from left, reacts as he watches during the first half of Game 1 in the BIG3 debut. Fans and players alike were excited to see the celebs in the stands.  AP Photo/Kathy Willens

If you were a fan, the chance to see players in this sort of environment was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that was impossible to pass up. Staten Island native Gello Jones brought his nephew to the games, and despite wearing a throwback Patrick Ewing Knicks jersey, he admitted that they really came to Brooklyn to see Iverson – a familiar hope among many fans in attendance. Yet, Jones couldn’t help but to have been amazed by all of the other Hall of Famers that they got to see. “Not this, way beyond my expectations,” he said. “Did you see what it was like coming in? It was crazy! There were more people coming in here for this than a Nets game. So the Nets either need to hire some of these guys or switch up to 3-on-3 and they’d be a lot better!”

Even after the game, Andre Owens himself couldn’t help but to be a fan, either. “You got Whoopi Goldberg in the stands. LL Cool J! Ain’t nobody expecting that! Ice Cube started something, whatever Cube starts turns to gold. The sky’s the limit!”

The excitement after the first week is palpable, but the BIG3 learned a ton about how to improve the product, harkening back to what Ice Cube predicted on media day. “The league is going to find its way, it’s going to settle into its own flow,” the league’s visionary told Yardbarker. “We got a league that could grow. We have players that are sitting on the sidelines right now that we think can contribute next year. KG (Kevin Garnett), Paul Pierce (who attended Sunday’s games), Ray Allen. We feel like if we do our thing this year, we’ll be attractive to those players. Players that are in (the NBA) now, we want them to look at us as a viable option.”

If the New York City debut was any indication, there’s no question that the BIG3 will have the pick of the litter when it comes to recruiting players of great renown going forward. As long as it makes necessary adjustments to hit a sweet spot in-person and on television, Ice Cube and company won’t have much a problem whetting the summertime appetites of basketball fans, either.

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