Ice Cube’s BIG3 basketball league is coming to the small screen. The organization will be the subject of a new docuseries following its launch in 2017 and its rise to popularity in the years since then.
The upcoming unnamed project is described as a combination of “Welcome to Wrexham” and “Cheer” within the world of basketball, according to Deadline. The series will dive in to the creation of BIG3, one of the fastest-growing new sports leagues in the U.S., and its journey to rivaling the NBA. The show will have two narratives in one as it chronicles Cube’s work and the challenges of building a new basketball league from scratch, as well as one of the BIG3 teams as they strive toward a coveted national championship title.
BIG3 was formed in 2017 as a three-on-three, half-court basketball league that welcomes some of the sport’s biggest names to its ranks like Allen Iverson and Mario Chalmers. Cube’s vision when he launched it was to bring entertainment and innovation to the sport, in the process creating a new variant of basketball termed “FIREBALL3.” Among these innovations are the four-point shot, which is accomplished by scoring from one of three four-point circles that are further out from the three-point line.
Since its formation, BIG3 earned the honor of being the first Black-owned and operated professional sports league. It’s also the first league to have female coaches within a male sport, with icons like Lisa Leslie taking on coaching duties. NBA Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler, meanwhile, serves as the commissioner of BIG3.
While BIG3 has found massive success on its own, Cube laments that major sports entities like ESPN and the NBA are seemingly trying to suppress the competing league. He shared his honest thoughts in an October 2022 tweet seen below, writing, “The NBA and ESPN are doing everything in their powers to ignore or destroy BIG3.”
Appreciate you @DaTrillStak5. We definitely need everybody’s support. The @nba and @espn are doing everything in their powers to ignore or destroy @thebig3 👊🏽 https://t.co/e9pO6JlTGl
— Ice Cube (@icecube) October 15, 2022