No matter what happens with Ice Cube’s BIG3 professional 3-on-3 basketball league you can’t say Cube didn’t put his best foot forward. In another move signifying legitimacy, the BIG3 announced today that former Raiders CEO, Amy Trask will join the league in the same capacity. The only thing you can do to “ensure” success is control what you can and signing someone with Trask’s track record and experience is a smart move. Trask is excited for the opportunity saying:
Ice Cube, Jeff Kwatinetz and Roger Mason, Jr. have created a truly innovative league that has already generated much anticipation and excitement from basketball fans. This is a tremendously exciting opportunity to work with some sensational people and create something unique. The BIG3 shares many qualities with the Raiders – they’re both bold and exciting, with their own brand of attitude.
The early stages and first season of this league will be critical to its potential long term success. As the former CEO of a major sports franchise, working under Al Davis, Trask has the necessary “chops” to handle negotiations and business operations that will be important as the league grows. There will be growing pains and things will “break” in the infancy period, but the steady guided hand of Trask will mitigate some of that.
Trask has a longstanding relationship with noted Raiders super fan and league founder Ice Cube and this relationship undoubtedly led to her hiring. In the press release making the announcement, Ice Cube said:
Everyone knows I’m a die-hard Raiders fan and over the course of my years I’ve gotten to know Amy through the team and know she’s the perfect person to round out our leadership team. She’s one of the most impressive people I’ve ever met. To excel in an environment like those Raiders teams shows me that she’s smart, daring and undaunted by challenges.
It’s important that Trask bring that attitude and moxy with her to this new post because there will be challenges. Competing for mindshare in today’s society is extremely difficult, plus the league will be playing during the summer months which is a notoriously tough period to capture interest. Trask will have to think “outside the box” on ways to grow the league and segment and lock in the right partners and audience. League co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz, who has also known Trask for almost twenty years, believes she is the right person for the job.
I’ve known Amy for more than two decades. When we thought about who would be right to help us lead this league through the inaugural season and beyond, we couldn’t have found a better, more qualified person than Amy. She was widely regarded as the most powerful female in the world of sports and her experience and leadership is unsurpassed. She has the vision and drive that will help the BIG3 tap its enormous potential and establish it as a premier basketball league.
The inaugural season of the BIG3 will be here shortly. The draft combine will take place in the next month, followed by the draft and tipoff on January 25th at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn.
See Ice Cube and Amy Trask on Twitter making the announcement for the league’s first CEO.
From the @RAIDERS to the @thebig3 as our new #CEO – welcome to the team @AmyTrask. pic.twitter.com/zdJ2Tq3hkp
— Ice Cube (@icecube) April 11, 2017
Thank you @icecube – it is a privilege a pleasure to join you and Jeff and @MoneyMase in this exciting @thebig3 adventure – here we go. https://t.co/EKSVWnaZok
— Amy Trask (@AmyTrask) April 11, 2017