Philadelphia hoops heads will have another option to feed their hunger for entertaining basketball this summer when the Big3 League rolls through the Wells Fargo Center on July 16th.
The Ice Cube-backed league will feature plenty of former NBA legends including Philly’s favorite little guy Allen Iverson and his 3’s Company team.
Ice Cube jumped on Adrian Wojnarowski’s podcast on Wednesday to talk everything Big3. Not surprisingly, A.I. was a key part of the conversation.
In fact, Iverson wasn’t on board with the whole idea from the jump.
"[Iverson] said no at first," Cube told Woj. "And then we got a little further down the road and we asked him again and he was more receptive to the idea. It took people time to wrap their head around it. This is something so new. A lot of people don’t know exactly what it is or what it’s going to be."
But getting A.I. proved to be one of the more significant players to get on board to give the league legitimacy.
"When we signed A.I. we knew we could launch" Cube said. "Until then we felt we needed more, even though we had great pieces; we felt we needed more, we need more, we need more to launch, to tell people we’re here. When we signed him we felt we had enough to be taken seriously."
NBA
Cube described launching the new concept as a "grand undertaking." Some of his other passions, such as his movie career have suffered. Trying to develop this new 3-on-3 concept and making it a reality is like "putting the train tracks down and driving the train at the same time."
They also briefly discuss athletes trying their hand at the rap game. Cube spoke highly of Shaq having a "hit album."
A.I. didn’t have the same luck.
"I asked A.I. the other day, 'you still rapping?' He was like, 'naaahhhhh.' He got so much heat for that."
As for the Big3 League, they'll have their hands full attempting to get basketball fans onboard. Having many of the games televised on Fox Sports 1 should help.
Cube seems up to the task.
"Was it easy getting a man on the moon?," Cube asked.
"Was it easy getting A.I. to a game on time?," Woj asked.
"If the Sixers can do it, the Big3 can do it," Cube said.
It all kicks off on June 25th in Brooklyn and hits Philly in July.