7.7.23 - JR Interview with Ice Cube

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Are we there yet? West Side Connection, and he's an entrepreneur. He's an actor, musician, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is my main man, Ice Cube. Cube, how you doing, man? I'm good, man. Real good. Absolutely.

Beautiful thing to hear. Let's talk about the entrepreneurial side. I know we got a lot of listeners trying to figure out why Ice Cube is on sports radio right now. And it's all about a league that you started back in 2017, the Big 3.

And you've been able to Rock and Roll for six years now. You've even gone international with a final coming down in London, Barclays Center, Texas, Chicago, all over the place. For anyone who's not familiar with the league, fill us in on this Big 3. The Big 3 is professional, three on three basketball, played by some of the greatest players that ever played the game. The names you know playing the game you love.

It's fast, it's physical, and it's innovative. And we're changing the game. And we've seen legends.

I've seen this up close and personal. Lisa Leslie as a coach, Charles Oakley, my main man, GP, Gary Payton, Dr. J, Nancy Lee. You got some major, major names involved in this. How did the idea come about? The idea came about because I'm a fan and I love sports. I love basketball and football. And so when the finals usually end, I would hibernate till football season started. And I felt like it was a lot of people out there just like me, a lot of sports fans who wanted something cool in the summer to really get behind with real stakes that, you know, had a championship in these 10 weeks that we're kind of without our favorite sports.

So that's where the idea came from. And once I put the business model and plan together with my partner, Jeff Quantance, it just attracted some of the greatest names to ever play the game. They endorsed the league and been a part of the league some every year. So just them coming back every year is a big endorsement on what the league is about and how we treat these superstars, which, you know, you know, some people don't have room for for their presence. But these are the best basketball minds walking the earth. Ice Cube is here with us.

The J.R. sport brief show on CBS Sports Radio. Listen, man, I've seen Iso Joe Johnson up in person. He's still out there getting buckets. We got a lot of athletes who can still ball out, who've gotten opportunities and then gone back in to the NBA. More recently, despite all of the success that you have had, you put a video up a couple of weeks ago about some of the brushback and pushback that you've gotten from what you call gatekeepers. And you haven't been shy and talking about the NBA.

You might have support from from Monster and Microsoft, etc. Talk about what some of these impediments have been to continue to grow out the league. Well, I think the biggest one is the NBA has a bylaw that states that no one who owns an NBA team can invest in a competing league. You know, the big three is great.

And so we got some of the best players that ever played a game playing three on three. But no way, shape or form are we competing with the NBA. So they need to cut that out. They're making billions of dollars every year.

And we're trying to get over the hump. So no way, shape or form are we competition. So we want Adam Silver, Mark Tatum, to drop that clause when it comes to us, because they're not they're not doing it to the basketball league, TBT, NBA investors, or NBA owners can invest in that. Now NBA owners can invest in slam ball. And they can invest in pickle ball, they can invest in pickle ball, they can invest in the NFL team, Major League Baseball. And the only thing that they can invest in is the big three. And we think it's ridiculous. And they need to drop the clause because it not only hurts. It not only, you know, affects current NBA team owners, but future owners, somebody who want to own the team one day, they're not going to get a big three team if they have a dream to own the Mavericks one day, or the Suns or whatever. So that's that cuts out a lot of our investment pool. Because if they buy a big three team, they their dreams of owning an NBA team is dashed.

So we think the clause is ridiculous, and that those guys should drop the clause, or they should not consider the big three as a competitive league. Ice Cube is here with us the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. As I said, I've been out to the games, it's a hell of an experience from all of the legends that are on the floor. You've had my main man T Mac checking out games, you've had LeBron checking out games, you have DJs, you have music, and Barclays Center jumping, every plays jumping, all state arena jumping. What sets this apart for anyone who hasn't seen it up close in person? It's one thing to watch it on CBS. It's another thing to see live.

Yeah, I mean, seeing a seven footer play three on three is an amazing sight. But you know, it's it's a festival. It's a festival, you know, people thought every word around but all day, basketball, you can see the whole league, no other league in in America besides probably NASCAR. You know, maybe tennis, where you can see the whole league golf, but so it's it's an attraction. Can't see the whole league in basketball in any league that's out there. So being able to see every single team, being able to see every single player that plays in the league.

Most of them, you know, it's a thrilling thing. And then you have entertainment dunkers, dancers, we're gonna have breakers, we're gonna celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip hop in Brooklyn on Sunday. We're gonna have some of the OGs out there like KRS-One, Nelly Mel gonna come through, her Grandmaster Flash gonna slide through. So we want to salute those guys. We're gonna have some of the OGs out there like KRS-One, Nelly Mel gonna come through, Nelly Mel gonna slide through. So we want to salute those guys.

MOP. Yeah, so it's going down and it's a fun event. It's a lot looser than an NBA game. So nobody's gonna tackle you if you go and try to get an autograph from the Iceman or something. Kids, a lot of kids because it's an affordable ticket. So you can take the whole family. Look at most NBA games.

They're pretty corporate. It's just a great experience. And we only come around every now and then. We're not here every year. You know, we're here and we're gone.

And the more love that we see, the more we'll be anxious to come back and bring it back. And, you know, it's the big three. Gotta see it live if we're in your town. And if you can't see live, check us out on CBS.

Ice Cube is here with us as we start to wrap up the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. This is a completely different event, as you mentioned, from the NBA. You mentioned the big wigs, the commissioner, the deputy commissioner. I know that they were aware of this before you even started. Are you open to going back inside and saying, hey, we can still work together if you completely close that door?

No, I haven't. I do want to work with them. You know, the only reason where they look at us as competition is because they're not working with us. If we work together, we could, you know, we can do things in concert and we can do things that made sense for the NBA, WNBA, G League, big three, FIBA, three on three, FIBA five on five.

There's a lot of cool synergy that can happen. And I think what the NBA really should be worried about is it's a lot of foreign money and just put together that live golf tournament. And I heard that they're thinking about putting the ABA back together. Now they put the ABA back together and offer big time NBA players those crazy numbers. The NBA has a real problem on their hands.

So I think they should be worried about that more than the big three. Let me tell you something, Ice Cube. We've seen you go from music to writing, writing Friday to acting to entrepreneurship, everything that you're doing now. What's next for you, Cube? What other box do you need to check?

I'm not really checking boxes. I'm just doing what's cool, trying to get people great entertainment, great things that they can do that's fun and things that I like to do. This is a big endeavor, so I want to make sure we get this rolling downhill and we want to sell teams to different cities and really spread the wings of this league.

Once that's done, then I'll think about what's my next creative mountain to climb. Speaking of another business venture, Cube, I know you're a big Raiders fan. You just talked about selling teams that are already participating in the big three. What are your thoughts on a lot of the relocation and franchise movement in sports? Particularly, we got a lot of teams going out to Vegas. Your Raiders went out to Vegas. They're going to move the Oakland A's out to Vegas. What are your thoughts on that and the effect it has on fans?

I think it's a double-edged sword. It's great for the city that's gaining teams, but it's sad for the city that has lost the team. I've lost football teams.

I've gained them and lost them. I understand the feeling when a team packs up and leaves. Two teams left LA at the same time, the same year, the Rams and the Raiders.

It hurts. At the end of the day, who else are you going to root for if you don't know, but you're not going to root for the Giants. You're not going to root for the 49ers, so you're going to root for the Raiders, even if they're in Vegas. Now, you got a reason to take a nice trip out to Vegas. It's not so far away. It's not such a bad town.

It's not such a bad town, but it's not so far away and it's not such a bad town. When it comes to Vegas, I think the California teams can live with that. Ice Cube joining us. Has this experience soured you as an NBA fan? Are you watching less Lakers or are you just kind of hands-off? How are you feeling about that?

Yeah, it has, you know. I was a big fan of the NBA. And very cool with Adam Silver, you know, text each other and wish each other well.

He always invited me to all star games and this and that. And so, yeah, sad to be in this position, but I wouldn't be going on this tour. I wouldn't be talking about stuff like this if we wasn't tampered with and our league wasn't harmed and hurt behind the scenes. We've heard from many executives at networks and major Fortune 500 companies that they can't work with us because of their relationship with the NBA. And, you know, it's a shame because a lot of them want to work with us. A lot of those deals were far down the line in the 11th hour and they were stomped out by the NBA office.

So, of course, that sours me in the league. And, you know, I think they need to pivot because at the end of the day, you know, this is a stain on Adam Silver's legacy and Mark Tatum's too. It's a stain that they can easily remove and wipe out and be the good guys.

But I don't see how they can win being the bad guys. By Cube, how can everybody listening here nationally on CBS support the Big Three, show up, show out, and maybe even travel out to the UK to check you guys in that final? Without a doubt, you can always go to bigthree.com. If you had the Big Three app or we're working on it, so that's kind of under construction, but bigthree.com.

Check us out. We're in Brooklyn this weekend. Sunday, check us out on CBS.

One o'clock at Eastern. You can come out to Brooklyn. We're in Memphis, Charlotte, Boston, Miami, Detroit, DC, and London. So come check it out. If we come to your town, check us out because you never know when we're going to come back. So I appreciate all the support and I'm having fun with it and I hope you have fun with it too. All right Cube, I appreciate you stopping by.

It's the JR Sport Brief Show here on CBS Sports Radio. Summer's always the perfect time to invite your friends and family over for a backyard barbecue. And when you're looking to make your get together a little better for you, Beyond Meat has you covered. Beyond's products are delicious, simple to cook, and can be added into so many different meals.

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