Ice Cube – Getty
*Sports fans will get another helping of Ice Cube’s BIG3 basketball league as it gears up for a return to CBS for its 2024 season.
Yahoo reports that CBS Sports will be the primary broadcast partner for the upcoming season with at least 20 Big3 regular season games airing on the network, in addition to the league’s playoffs, championship, all-star, and celebrity games. The seventh season of Ice Cube’s BIG3 league will start on June 15, 2024, and run through Aug. 18, 2024.
“CBS feels like home for the BIG3, so it’s good to be back home,” the 54-year-old rap legend/actor said in reaction to the league’s return to CBS. “The best 3-on-3 basketball in the world on the best network in the world. It’s only right.”
Echoing Ice Cube’s love of the BIG3, CBS Sports Executive Vice President, Programming Dan Weinberg noted the league’s growth in viewership, attendance, and popularity during the league’s six-season existence.
“BIG3 continues to deliver an exciting brand of basketball to a passionate audience in addition to the work they do on behalf of players and the community,” Weinberg added. “We look forward to the BIG3 returning to our slate of action-packed summer programming on CBS and Paramount+.”
Big 3, the innovative 3-on-3 “Fireball” league founded by Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz
The Big3’s return to CBS Sports comes amid troubling times for the young league.
Citing a report from TMZ, Yahoo noted a current investigation involving the rivalry between the NBA and BIG3. The Department of Justice is currently looking into the NBA for “allegedly conspiring to undercut the success of the BIG3. The TMZ report mentioned accusations of the NBA “attempting to dissuade sponsors, television networks, athletes and referees from working with the league.”
News surrounding the NBA investigation has not gone unnoticed. Former NBA star and current BIG3 head coach Stephen Jackson weighed in on the development via social media as he took aim at folks who have not supported Cube or the BIG3 since the league’s existence.
“Sh** makes no sense. I’m first-team all-common sense,” Jackson said at the time.
“When it came out on social media that Cube was the first black owner of a professional league, everybody wanted to post up for clout, nobody actually wanted to come out and show up to the games. Everybody was clout chasing,” he added.
“Cube was going on, doing interviews saying how everybody was hating the league, blocking his sponsors. [He said the NBA was hating. Nobody believed him, but now it’s coming out to be true. It makes sense if all the coaches in the BIG3 are Hall-of-Famers and a lot of the players are ex-players from the NBA, why wouldn’t you support that? Oh, I know why. We all know why.”
Jackson’s comments come after Cube blasted the NBA and ESPN for their hate against the BIG3 with his own accusations. According to the 54-year-old rap legend, the basketball organization and sports network are working against his efforts to further the BIG3’s success.
“Ever since I put out the contract with Black America, you know they have been f**king with me. Here and there, this and that,” Cube said this past summer.
“But it’s cool, you know, I expect that. You know I’ve been working on the BIG3 for a long time and you know how they’ve been f**king with me. I’ve made it plain, simple, and clear what they’ve been doing. The NBA’s been f**king with us.”
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB: Ice Cube Educates Twitter User Who Seemed to Blame N.W.A for the Growth of Immorality in the Black Community
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