Ice Cube’s earliest basketball memory is from when he was around five-years-old, as he watched his father, Hosea Jackson, and his older brother CJ put up a basketball hoop at their house in Los Angeles.
Cube, who was called by his birth name O’Shea Jackson at the time, looked on as they attached the backboard to their garage, secured the rim and hung a net from it.
He immediately wanted to play, but CJ and his friends, who were about eight years older, told him he wasn’t ready. He ran in the house to tell his mother, Doris, who said, “When you’re bigger, you’ll be able to play.”
It took a little while, but Cube started balling at a young age, because the older kids telling him he couldn’t do it gave him the challenge that he needed.
“It made me want to play that much more,” Cube told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay during an interview this week.
Now, 48 years later, Cube is five years into running the BIG3 Basketball League that he co-founded in 2017. Since then, the league has become a magnet for NBA players looking for new challenges, and the premier place for fans to watch three-on-three basketball.
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Ice Cube brings Big3 basketball league to Tampa this summer
This Sunday, Aug. 14, Cube’s league brings its playoffs to Tampa for the first time, where the top four teams will battle it out for a chance to make it to the championship in Atlanta.
Co-founder of the BIG3 league is just one of Cube’s many accomplishments in the entertainment industry. He’s also a rap legend, prolific movie star, writer, director, and executive producer.
But basketball has always been close to his heart, so much so that one of his most famous songs, “It Was a Good Day,” brags about him fucking around and getting that ever-famous triple-double.
So he founded BIG3 as a way to pay tribute to the ultimate street ball game that he grew up playing.
“Our demographic skews young, because a lot of kids who are out in the park are playing three-on-three,” Cube said. “You don’t have enough people to play five-on-five all the time, so it’s relatable.”
He’s hoping the youth in Tampa, and people of all ages, are hyped for the playoff game this weekend. Cube said that recently, he’s seen a side of the city he had never witnessed before.
“The new Tampa, it’s different,” he said. “It used to just be this fun place to go. But because of the excitement that’s been going on for the last three or four years, it’s changed. There’s a championship energy now.”
Cube referenced the Buccaneers’ 2021 Super Bowl win and the back-to-back Stanley Cup championships of the Lightning. He added that fans of the former Los Angeles Raiders have had Tampa on their mind for a while, after the Buccaneers defeated the Raiders at the Super Bowl in 2003.
He said Tampa’s winning environment makes it the perfect place for the BIG3 playoff matchup on Sunday.
Game one will feature the Trilogy vs. Aliens, and game two pits the 3 Headed Monsters vs. Power.
Trilogy is BIG3’s two-time defending champ, but the Aliens beat them in the regular season earlier this year.
The 3 Headed Monsters have been in the playoffs all five years that the league has existed. The team has been to the championship twice, and lost both times to Trilogy. The Monsters will be up against Power, who won the championship in 2018.
“It’s going to be a legendary playoff game for all the teams this Sunday,” Cube said. “A real dog fight.”
The winners will go on to play in the championship in Atlanta on Aug. 21.
Aside from the main event, Cube has been known to take the stage during halftime and drop some verses. When asked if it’s going to happen in Tampa, he said, “You never know. If the crowd is hyped, let’s do it.”
BIG3 is now about the same age Cube was when he recalls his first basketball memory.
At 53, he doesn’t play anymore, after seeing players his age tear their ACLs and take on other serious injuries.
Instead, he’s focused on building the league.
And its popularity is growing, he said. The playoffs will be aired by both CBS and Paramount+.
But when asked what his vision is for the league five years from now, when it hits 10 years old, he said there are still some challenges that must be faced.
The league—which features several famous ex-NBA and WNBA players and coaches, along with European players and up-and-coming ballers—has been wrongly labeled by some as a retired players’ league.
“I want the league to not have a stigma. People look at us like we got retired players, but they’re not retired,” Cube said. “Most of our guys play all over the world, so, retired from where? You know, the NBA doesn’t own basketball, they own the NBA.”
Nevertheless, he said that sponsorships are an issue, because some sponsors are worried about participating in the BIG3, out of fear of being perceived as going against the NBA.
But Cube says that the game is the game, and that even the younger players can get locked up on the court by the older players that formerly played for the NBA, and vice versa.
“That’s the beauty of it, you’re either good enough or you’re not,” he said.
While the popularity of BIG3 is on the rise, Cube hopes to ultimately see full support from the sports industry across the country.
If the league gets that kind of support, it can expand to more teams, and run more games throughout the season.
“We’re right there,” Cube said. “I want to see it become a place where people just love it, and they look forward to it and can’t wait for it every year.”
This article appears in Aug 4-10, 2022.
