Ice Cub’s Big 3 puts a new twist on basketball

The game of basketball has been forever changed. Rapper-actor Ice Cube has created a basketball league full of retired NBA players, NBA stars and other basketball players called the Big 3 and it has been a sensation. This 3-on-3 game has new crazy rules which has introduced the four point shot.

Here are the full rules.

Now each team has three players on the court at one time and it is only played on a half court. The home team starts with the ball which eliminates the jump ball at the beginning of the game. The games are to 60 points but that team must win by two and halftime is declared when one team gets to 30 points.

Instead of a full shot clock, players only have 14 seconds to get a shot off when the ball is in play.

The standard two-point and three-point shots apply just like in a regular 5-on-5 game. However, Ice Cube has introduced the four-point shot. There are three four-point circles outside of the three-point line and in order for it to count has four points, a player must have at least one foot on the line of the small four-point circle.

Fouls and foul shots are different too. If a player is fouled during a two-point shot, that player goes to the free throw line and shoots one shot that would equal two points. If a player is fouled on the three-point attempt then that player would shot one free shot from the three-point line for three points. If a player is fouled during a four-point shot then he shoots one shot from the four point circle that would equal four points.

After a rebound, the rebounding team must clear the ball past the three-point line in order to start a new play but shots that do not hit the rim or balls stolen do not have to be cleared and play can continue.

The structure of the league is simple. There are a total of eight teams which are 3’s Company, 3 Headed Monsters, Ball Hogs, Ghost Ballers, Killer 3s Power, Trilogy and Tri-State. Each roster has a total of five players who will rotate in and out of the game. The season includes a total of eight weeks with each week holding four games a piece. So this means each team will play once a week with the games being held on Sundays.

Each week the games will be held at a different location around the United States with week 9 being for the playoffs and week 10 for the championship game.

Here is the ten week schedule.

Week 1 (June 25): Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY (played yesterday: results shown below)

Week 2 (July 2): Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC

Week 3 (July 9): BOK Center, Tulsa, OK

Week 4 (July 16): Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia

Week 5 (July 23): UIC Pavilion, Chicago, IL

Week 6 (July 30): American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX

Week 7 (August 6): Rupp Arena, Lexington, KY

Week 8 (August 13): Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA

Week 9 (August 20): Key Arena, Seattle, WA (Playoffs)

Week 10 (August 26): T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV (Championship)

The league started yesterday (June 26, 2017) in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York and it was a packed house. Over 15,000 fans came in to see these massive event packed with stars including Allen Iverson, Kenyon Martin, Charles Oakley, Mike Bibby, Brian Scalabrine and more.

Four games were held yesterday:

3 Headed Monsters vs. Ghost Ballers (62-60)

Rashard Lewis led all scorers with 27 points and Kwame Brown chipped in with 17 points. Jason Williams suffered an injury to his leg but is expected to be okay.

Power vs. Tri-State (62-58)

DeShawn Stephenson who played on the 2011 Dallas Mavericks NBA championship team led the scorers in this game with 20 points ( 5 three pointers) for the Power while Jermaine O’Neal added 18 points for Tri-State.

3’s Company vs. Ball Hogs (61-51)

Andre Owens who last played for BC Hallmann Vienna in Austria scored 20 points for 3’s Company while Allen Iverson played limited minutes and went 1 for 6 with two assists.

Trilogy vs. Killer 3s (60-45)

Al Harrington scored 25 points for Trilogy while cruising to an easy victory over the Killer 3s in the final game of the day.

Reggie Evans scored 18 points and Stephen Jackson 17 points for the Killer 3s.

Ice Cube has created a masterpiece and hopefully this ten week season will be a brilliant success and this league will grow and possibly see more NBA retired stars like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and maybe Tim Duncan play next year or the years down the road. However, this season is obviously a test run but it is safe to say that this new twist on basketball is just another way fans to enjoy the game they love.