SPORTS
Saturday, July 6, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
Ice Cube enjoying the good days in 3rd year of Big3
By DAN GELSTON
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA
—
Ice Cube and Dakota John-
son were snapped this week
in Los Angeles rehearsing
for a new movie. Johnson
was dressed in a white top,
black leather jacket and dis-
tressed jeans. Cube? He kept
it sports chic: a Raiders hat,
dark shades and a Killer 3s
T-shirt straight out of the
Big3 catalog.
Whether sitting courtside
in Philly or filming in Hol-
lywood, Cube remains the
famous face of his 3-on-3
half-court basketball league.
Cube is serious about grow-
ing the Big3, heavy on nos-
talgia, into more than just
another niche sports league.
The rapper/actor and his
league of former NBA play-
ers have made it to a third
season, barnstorming this
summer from Birming-
ham to Brooklyn, shooting
4-pointers in pickup-style
games where the first to 50
points wins.
“It’s Ice Cube. Every-
thing’s going to be big,” said
Greg Oden, the No. 1 overall
pick of the 2007 NBA draft.
Cube is a die-hard Los
Angeles Lakers fan, pub-
licly welcoming All-Star
Anthony Davis to the team
this offseason and express-
ing his disappointment in
Magic Johnson’s departure.
But hours before NBA free
agency was set to formally
begin, Cube was at Tem-
ple’s Liacouras Center get-
ting ready for a Big3 triple-
header, his interest in the
million-dollar deals landed
by potential future stars of
his league dimmed by the
Sunday games ahead.
“Nah, I ain’t worried
about the NBA tonight,”
Cube said. “I’ve got my own
league to worry about right
now.”
The Big3 has hit snags
like any growing sports
league, but it showcases its
former slam dunk champs
in a national TV deal with
CBS, expanded this year
from eight teams to 12, hits
18 markets in 11 weeks and
dropped the minimum age
requirement to 27.
Cube, though, wants the
Big3 in Season3 to get, well,
bigger.
“We need more inter-
est from mainstream sports
media outside of when I’m
doing an interview,” Cube
the biggest busts in NBA
history, is using the Big3 as
a final shot to have fun play-
ing basketball in front of a
2½-year-old daughter who
will need YouTube clips to
see his glory days at Ohio
State. Oden still feels the
aches and injuries that cur-
tailed his promising career.
He trudged back to a make-
shift training room area not
much larger than a voting
booth, pulled open a black
curtain and sought treat-
ment. Oden rubbed a scar on
his left knee and complained
of soreness to a trainer,
walking out with both knees
wrapped in bags of ice.
“I’m not hurting, hurt-
ing,” Oden said with a smile.
“I’m not trying to resurrect a
career, believe me.”
Big3 players can make
at least $100,000 per season
and coaches said the league
provides them an NBA-
type lifestyle in travel and
accommodations.
“You can’t go down from
what the NBA was,” for-
mer Seattle SuperSonics star
and Big3 coach Gary Payton
said. “That’s what (Cube)
did. He made per diem. He
gives you first-class flights.
AP Photo/Rich Schultz, File There’s first-class hotels.
In this July 16, 2017, file photo, LL Cool J, second from front left, and Ice Cube watch the action as The Power plays the Ghost You can’t go down from
Ballers during the first half of a BIG3 basketball game in Philadelphia.
that or players don’t want to
come.”
Philadelphia basketball year on Fox and the first players that’s in the NBA.
Payton said he’s long been
said. “Having this level of
talent, I didn’t think it would icon Sonny Hill turned to week of action this year They might not be able to tight with Cube and heard
be as hard as it is to just get league commissioner Clyde on CBS averaged 900,000 chase John Wall 82 games the pitch for the league years
national attention on the Drexler and told him, “Great viewers.
down the court, but as far before its inception. Payton
league. It’s being done top crowd for no promotion.”
“We’re close to being in as knowing how to play the says he’s so tight with Cube
That’s part of Cube’s profit,” Cube said. “We’ve game, being in shape, what’s that he claimed he inspired
class with some of the big-
gest names to ever play bas- beef.
the classic line, “It’s ironic,
still got a little work to do. not to like?”
ketball. We’ve got basketball
The lower bowl was But the interest is there.”
Big3 games have rekin- I had the brew, she had the
gods as part of this league. I pretty full at Temple and
Cube envisions a day dled the idea of an NBA chronic/The Lakers beat
don’t understand, what’s not fans stretched to the sec- when current NBA stars play comeback for a handful of the Supersonics” in Cube’s
ond level, some there on a in the Big3 or some retired players.
to like?”
seminal hit “It Was A Good
“Some guys want to keep Day.”
At Temple, fans roamed 2-for-1 ticket deal, to catch greats (think Vince Carter)
“That was because of
the concourse sipping $10 a glimpse of former 76ers move straight from NBA their competitive juices
Big3 Baller Lemonade Reggie Evans and Jason retirement into a league that going,” Cube said. “Some me! He wanted to get at
(Bacardi rum and lemon- Richardson, Oden, Glen allows hand-checking and is guys feel like they didn’t do me,” Payton said, laughing.
ade) and waiting to pounce “Big Baby” Davis and Car- home to the 14-second shot what they’re supposed to in “That’s good. He did it, man.
from their seats for a photo los Boozer. It’s no Dream clock.
the league. Or didn’t have That’s why he put Seattle on
op of a Hall of Famer like Team, but the collection of
Cube,
and
BIG3 the opportunity to, so they there, because we used to
Big3 coach Julius Erving. past-their-primetime players co-founder and owner Jeff feel like they have some- beat on LA a lot.”
Cube wants to give his
Some Big3 players might still put on a show of flashy Kwatinetz, have pushed thing to prove.”
Josh Childress went players more of what they
even sit next to fans in the dunks and extra-long range that their brand of hooping
lower bowl — yes, that was shooting that reminded fans is more than an old-timer’s from the Big3 to a training miss from their NBA days,
camp contract with Denver. such as Big3 highlights as a
former Knicks guard Nate why they were NBA starters league.
Robinson in a Philadelphia and lottery picks. The half-
“I think there’s a snob- Xavier Silas signed with the regular staple on highlight
Phillies Bryce Harper jer- court game wipes out the big biness to the fact that peo- Boston Celtics after a stint in reels and published game
sey leaping out of his seat man lumbering down the ple think just because these the Big3. Jason Terry retired stories that treat the play-
high-fiving players and fans. court playing little defense. guys are not part of the from the NBA in 2018 and ers seriously and not just
And while the star power When Ricky Davis hit a NBA, they’re not the high- signed with the Big3.
as a “where are they now?”
may not rival the A-listers 3-pointer for Ghost Ballers, est level of basketball that
“With
the
money curiosity.
“In a perfect world,
at a Lakers or Knicks game, he simply turned around and we have,” Cube said. “That’s they’re giving now, that’s a
Cube sat next to Kentucky took two steps toward Biv- just not true. The NBA only no-brainer,” Ghost Ballers nobody’s worried about me
coach John Calipari and just ouac’s Will Bynum to man has so many spots. To be forward Jamario Moon said. in three, four, five years,”
honest, the guys that we’ve “A lot of us still have some- Cube said. “They’re just
a few seats down from fel- up.
low rapper/actor LL Cool J
TV ratings peaked at got, the basketball IQ is thing left in the tank.”
worried about the league
Oden, just 31 but one of and what it’s doing.”
in the front row.
about 395,000 a game last 10 times better than most
NASCAR ready for 1 final round of Daytona summer fireworks
By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
DAYTONA
BEACH,
Fla. — The midpoint of the
NASCAR season is here,
making one last holiday
weekend run at its birth-
place, trying as always to
deliver a white-knuckled
thrill fest on the high banks
of Daytona International
Speedway.
The series is riding a high
into Saturday night’s race
following Alex Bowman’s
first career Cup victory last
week and a new rules pack-
age that NASCAR leader-
ship believes has immensely
improved the on-track
product.
“It’s been an extraordi-
nary year,” Steve Phelps,
who took over as president
of NASCAR late last season,
said Friday. “I think the rac-
ing product has been excep-
tional. By and large, the fans
are incredibly excited about
what they see.”
The numbers support
Phelps’ assertion that the
racing is indeed more com-
petitive than it was this time
last season, when Kevin
Harvick, Kyle Busch and
Martin Truex romped over
the competition during a
summer stretch in which
the three could not be beat.
There have been 602 green
flag passes for the lead in 17
races, up from 383 at this
point last year. The aver-
age number of lead changes
is nearly 19 per race, up
from 15.88, and four races
this season have produced
record-setting green flag
passes for the lead.
Conversely, though, there
AP Photo/John Raoux
Storm clouds move over Daytona International Speedway causing a delay of events before a NASCAR Xfinity auto race on
Friday in Daytona Beach, Fla.
have been just seven win-
ners this season, with the
lion’s share of the checkered
flags going to Joe Gibbs Rac-
ing and Team Penske. Gibbs
drivers have combined to
win 10 races, and Denny
Hamlin led a 1-2-3 JGR
sweep of the season-open-
ing Daytona 500, while Pen-
ske drivers have six wins.
Hendrick Motorsports
is finally showing signs of
a turnaround behind Bow-
man’s victory at Chicago-
land and Chase Elliott’s win
at Talladega, but it can’t be
overlooked that the parity
the new rules were intended
to create has not trickled
down to the rest of the field.
Stewart-Haas Racing is win-
less so far — the organiza-
tion won 12 races last year
— but the domination to
date by two teams does not
have NASCAR worried.
“The
Penske-Gibbs
piece, those teams have fig-
ured things out,” Phelps said.
“There have been plenty
of opportunities for Kevin
Harvick to have won. I think
that’s going to balance out. I
don’t think alarms are going
off that it is just a Gibbs and
Penske show.”
Daytona, an unpredict-
able and often crash-filled
race, has been known to pro-
duce wild-card winners and
last year the victory went
to Erik Jones. But winning
on the 2.5-mile superspeed-
way requires strategy, a lot
of luck and, lately, alliances
made through the garage.
Hamlin and the Gibbs
group brokered a deal with
Hendrick
Motorsports
before the Daytona 500 to
work together while draft-
ing, and that put three Gibbs
drivers on the podium. The
Chevrolet camp fumed that
Hendrick would work with
rival manufacturer Toyota,
while the Ford drivers bick-
ered they didn’t do enough
to try to put the blue oval in
victory lane.
By Talladega in April,
the heads of Ford and Chevy
demanded their teams work
with one another, and it
worked for the first Chevro-
let win of the season.
The plotting for Saturday
night began before the teams
even arrived in Daytona.
“We were talking about
it just the other day as a
group,” said Gibbs driver
and defending race win-
ner Jones. “We’ve got some
strong race cars. Unfor-
tunately, there is only five
Toyotas out there and that
doesn’t give us a lot to work
with, especially with the
other manufacturers having
more.
“We will do all we can. I
know we will have fast cars,
but it’s definitely going to be
manufacturer driven with
the other two linking up and
sticking together. I think
they saw what Toyota has
done in the past.”
Tension started in the
first practice of the week-
end, on Thursday after-
noon when Brad Keselowski
deliberately rear-ended Wil-
liam Byron to send a mes-
sage that he will not tolerate
blocking during the race. It
might have been the warn-
ing shot on what Saturday
night could look like in the
final race run at Daytona on
the July Fourth weekend.
The event is being moved
to August next season as
the regular-season finale,
ending a run that began in
1959. The change is part
of a scheduling shake-up
that fans have demanded,
with more changes coming
in 2021.