On April 12, 2016, Kobe Bryant played his last game as a Los Angeles Laker.

What he probably didn’t know at the time was that the end of his career helped mark the beginning of something else – another basketball league entirely.

Lakers superfan Ice Cube was watching intently as the Black Mamba torched the Utah Jazz in his swansong and it got the legendary actor and rapper thinking about a concept he’d previously had.

“Watching 3-on-3 basketball and playing it all my life, I wondered why it hadn’t been elevated to the professional level,” the man born O’Shea Jackson told TSN.ca. “And that idea was sitting for a while, but then Kobe scores 60 points in his last game and I’m like, ‘Why can’t I see this dude play no more?’ So the two ideas started to intersect – we need a league where we can see these guys still play, guys who still have the passion. Just because you’re not on an NBA roster doesn’t mean you’re [still] not a baller.”

Flash forward a little over two years later and the Big3 League, the eight-team organization founded by Cube and his business partner, Jeff Kwatinetz, is in the middle of its second season and about to make its Canadian debut at the Scotiabank Arena (the former Air Canada Centre) in Toronto on Friday night when its eight teams touch down to play four games on the Toronto Raptors’ home court.

 

Despite his high profile, the star of movies like Boyz n the Hood, Friday and Three Kings admits that there was some difficulty in getting the venture off the ground.

“Signing players, getting a TV deal and getting people to buy into the concept – it was hard to get people to buy into something they’ve never seen before,” Cube said. “Of course, they’ve seen 3-on-3 basketball, but it seemed like an amateur sport that your girlfriend comes to watch you play. So [we were] just trying to get people to accept the concept of this elevated to a professional level.”

The Big3 departs from traditional basketball in a number of ways.

Among them, it’s a half-court game with a 14-second shot clock, but no game clock. Half-time occurs when one team reaches 25 points and the game is over when one team hits the 50-point plateau and leads by at least two. Foul shots are taken from where the foul occurred. There’s no three-second rule. Most notably, 30 feet out from the hoop, there are a trio of circles where any shot taken from inside one is worth four points, an innovation the league’s players love.

“When they introduced the three-point line in the NBA (in 1979-80), that changed the game because people like Jerry West, for instance, had been shooting threes for a long time, but never to be counted,” said former Raptors fan favourite Jerome “Junkyard Dog” Williams, who played for Power last season under coach and now league commissioner, Clyde Drexler. “ ‘Iceman’ George Gervin, he was shooting threes for a long time before they introduced the three-point line. What would his stats be right now if they had the line [sooner]? So the same thing the three-point line did for regular basketball, the four-point line is doing [for Big3]. Because you have Steph Curry right now – how many four-point shots has he made? Kevin Durant? James Harden? So these guys, they’re showing you that they have this unique ability, this unique talent, but you’re not able to quantify it.”

That unique talent on display in the Big3 comes in the form of players fans will be eminently familiar with from their years in the NBA. Among those on current rosters include the likes of former All-Stars Carlos Boozer, Rashard Lewis and Metta World Peace. A vast majority of rosters are comprised of players who played in the NBA with some long-time veterans.

“People have to understand the way the NBA’s game goes, a lot of these guys, for whatever reason and whoever they were playing with, there’s a new guy who came in and their minutes went away,” Williams said of the reality that pro players face. “It’s a young man’s game.”

It’s his experience in the entertainment industry that helped Cube gain an appreciation for what these athletes do and to help them find another outlet for their skills.

“It starts off, for me, with sympathy for the players,” Cube said. “Somebody comes to you at 29, 30, 31 and says, ‘The shit you’re doing here? You’re done, man. Figure something else out.’ Damn, that’s rough. I couldn’t imagine if somebody came to me at that age and told me to quit or it was over.

“So in thinking of that, I’m like, ‘Yo, these dudes still can play’ and I know this is killing them that they have nowhere to f---in’ showcase their skills. And so, from there, we know how to put on a show, we know how to sell arenas, we know how to do TV, we know how to frame a narrative. We know how to do all those things.”

The players are trying to live up to their end of the bargain.

“I mean, last year if somebody said, ‘Hey Junkyard, are you still dunking?’ Well, yeah. I’m not dead,” Williams said. “I’m just a little retired. It’s fun that fans can see that Baron Davis can still hit a step-back three-pointer. Corey Maggette can still dunk and get to the foul line with ease. We’ve all still have the same skills, the crossover dribbles, the rebounding. Jermaine O’Neal backs you down in the post and thunder-dunks. Kenyon Martin, he brought the rim down last year. Amar’e Stoudemire had great pick-and-rolls. Nate the Great (Robinson), no-look bounce passes and dimes. We’re not dead. We’re still here.”

And even with the big names involved, it’s a lesser-known player who’s caught the eye of Cube: a 35-year-old former Temple standout who went undrafted in 2004 and never played in the NBA.

“David Hawkins is an unknown dude,” Cube said of the Washington, D.C., native who plied his trade for years in Europe. “He didn’t make a splash in the NBA, but he’s playing at an MVP-level in the Big3. He’s 20 points a game, up there in assists and rebounds. This is a guy who, ya know, people probably didn’t think could play. And now he’s got a platform where he can show them, ‘No, no. I can play.’ In a [perfect] world, some of these guys can still get picked up [by an NBA team], but if not, I think they love playing in the Big3 and making their mark there. They’ve got people running up to them now and have attention that they probably never had before. It’s pretty cool.”

 

Retired from the NBA in 2005 after a nine-year career that included a memorable stint with the Dinos, Williams didn’t expect the Big3 to bring him the sheer joy that it did. Travelling over the course of a season with teammates and opponents alike allows the players to develop relationships and familiarity unlike the ones the NBA offers.

“I didn’t know how much fun we were going to have as former players interacting and having fun with each other,” Williams said. “In the NBA, we’re separate. The teams are in this hotel and you’re in another hotel. There’s no interaction. Well now, all the teams are at the same hotel. You’re seeing the guys for dinner or lunch, you’re going to shootaround at the same place. There’s a lot of interaction and I didn’t know that was going to be so much a fun part of it because when Ice Cube says, ‘Hey, I want trash-talking. I want you guys to have some fun with it,’ well, how are you going to have fun if you’re not around the guys so they don’t take it personal[ly]?

“And that’s the part I liked about it because I can start my trash-talking in the elevator. It’s a whole-day conversation so now we’re getting ready to have this interaction on the court, but it’s already been set up. The stage has been set.”

The fun his players are having has been obvious to Cube.

“It’s cool because, for one thing, I know they’re having a ball,” Cube said. “I know the players are having the f---in’ time of their lives. We don’t put too much on them to do for the league. You gotta come to one practice. We might have a few interviews for you to do, but you actually don’t have to do them – you can say, ‘I don’t want do it.’ So the obligations are really just come to the practice and come to the game and play. And, ya know, just hang out, have fun and all the camaraderie, all that’s in between. I know if I was player, I’d be having a ball, too.”

But the fun carries with it some risk. Williams is now 45 and hadn’t played in the NBA in 12 years before stepping back on a Big3 court. The return to physicality wasn’t a seamless one for the Washington, D.C., native.

“It’s a dangerous thing,” Williams said half-jokingly. “It’s scary, but the fans give you that energy. The Dog Pound gives me that love and starts barking. I remember last year, I went up for a rebound and somebody’s legs got up under me and I landed straight on my head – Boom, knocked out for like two seconds. And I heard one of the fans yell, “Dog, are you okay?” and I literally just shook it off, went “Yeah!” and hopped back up into character. But if the fans weren’t there, I might’ve just stayed down there!”

A former Georgetown Hoya, Williams has transitioned off the court and now heads up the Big3’s youth initiative program called Young3. In every city the Big3 travels to, Young3 sets up clinics for kids in that town on the Thursday ahead of the Friday games.

“I was honoured, excited, humbled and really wanted to make Young3 my vision," Williams said of being approached to lead the project. “I’m happy to say that’s what it’s turning out to be.”

What that entails is a comprehensive program to assist the local community and its children.

“It’s a few things, starting off with refurbishing basketball courts,” Williams said. “So we’ve done eight basketball courts throughout the cities we’ve played in and they reach about 30,000 kids a year. Right then and there, we’re already reaching close to a quarter of a million kids.”

And on those Thursdays with the kids, Williams is right there on the courts with them.

“We have a great sponsor in Adidas who provides balls for these centres,” Williams said. “We also provide the game-time scoreboards and a real-time coaching app, where kids can download the app and get coached by JYD after I leave. So they get five free coaching sessions with me, they can interact with me and ask me questions about the game, about their specific games and about what they’re trying to do as a young player and I can respond to them. And we have a host of other Big3 coaches, as well, and retired players and NBA legends doing the same thing. So it’s a unique thing for Big3 and Young3 to be able to engage our fans.”

The league expects the engagement to continue with 3-on-3 basketball set to debut as an Olympic sport at Tokyo 2020, something Cube believes brings an added viability to the Big3.

“Even though we made the [Big3] announcement months before that, once they made that decision, I think in the minds of [the media] and people in the industry, people started to say, ‘Maybe this is something to look at,’ ” Cube said.
Fans in Toronto will have that chance on Friday night.

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The Big3 is at the Scotiabank Centre at 7pm. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.