Big3 Challenges 3×3 Olympics Winner As U.S. Men’s Team Struggles

Big3, the 3-on-3 pro basketball league cofounded by rapper Ice Cube (above), is issuing a challenge to whichever country wins the men’s 3×3 basketball event at the Paris Olympics.

“There’s 12 teams in the Big3, and any of the 12 teams would win gold,” Big3 president and cofounder Jeff Kwatinetz tells Front Office Sports.

The challenge issued to the eventual gold-medal winners is to face an All-Star team of Big3 players during the league’s finals in Boston on Aug. 18, the same time the league has its All-Star and Celebrity Game showcase. The league also plans to give a financial incentive to the gold medalists if they are able to defeat the Big3 contingent.

The challenge comes as USA Basketball’s 3×3 team has struggled in Paris, ranking seventh of eight teams after starting 1-4 in the tournament.

The USA Basketball team is composed of just one former NBA player, Jimmer Fredette, who was the top-ranked 3×3 player before the Olympics, while the remaining three players on the roster—Canyon Barry, Kareem Maddox, and Dylan Travis—were not drafted by NBA teams.

The Big3, which launched in 2017, features a slew of ex-NBA players, including former NBA All-Stars such as Joe Johnson and Jason Richardson. The top two teams in the Big3 standings so far in 2024 feature former NBA players such as Gerald Green, Jordan Crawford, and Corey Brewer.

Kwatinetz claims USA Basketball has avoided working with the Big3, in part because of its association with the NBA.

“USA Basketball is controlled by the NBA, and they don’t want the Big3 to get any recognition so they’d rather have the United States forfeit a gold medal,” Kwatinetz said. “It is disgusting that the NBA and USA Basketball put their own petty disputes above their country’s success in the Olympics.”

There are several requirements for players to be eligible to play for the 3×3 Olympic team, which include participation in FIBA-sanctioned 3×3 events. The Big3 is not a FIBA-sanctioned event, in part because it plays a modified 3×3 format.

Kwatinetz said his players are professionals and will not play in “pseudo-amateur events” to accumulate points. 

“If USA Basketball cared [about] winning gold medals for the United States instead of themselves, [then] in the same way that they let the NBA choose the 5-on-5 team, they would do the same thing with us and we would win the gold for the United States.”

USA Basketball did not immediately respond to a request for comment from FOS.