Here come the conventional individuals trying to knock down a great idea. The BIG3, the league created by rapper Ice Cube, is currently on their 3rd season of existence and has given retired NBA players a place to show off their skills post-retirement. No, this is not NBA level basketball, but I believe in half-court basketball is as entertaining as it gets. This league has received an incredible amount of support from fans all across the country, but with supporters, according to sports gossip there are also haters coming to the forefront.
Rodger Sherman, a writer from the ringer, recently wrote a column about the spectacular performance of former Allstar Joe Johnson during his rookie season in the BIG3. Through the first month of the BIG3, Johnson leads the league in points, assists, total field goals and 4-pointers. His team, Triplets, is in second place with a 4-1 record. Their only lose coming to the hands of last years champions, Power.
Unfortunately, the story is not so focused on the level of play of Johnson but more in the level of competition. Ice Cube was not having it, and understandably was very upset with these comments. These players are not doing it for money, BIG3 players make just shy of six figures. Which for common folks is a lot of money, these players have been in the receiving end of multimillion-dollar deals. Johnson is not a man amongst boys, he is just a very talented player that could probably still play in the league, but an 82 game season with all the travel commitments would probably not be able to maintain this level play.
Ice cube deserves more credit for what he has done. He has created a league that has been able to keep players doing the thing they love, basketball. All of the players have either NBA or International experience. Anyone daring to say they can play 3-3 basketball at this level of competition should go out and try it, trust me, no one will be watching.
Flip the page to see how Ice Cube and Chuck D reacted to the column.
