Ice Cube speaks out on BIG3’s massive reported offer to Caitlin Clark
Ice Dice is talking publicly on his league’s reported pursuit of Caitlin Clark.
The BIG3, the 3-on-3 basketball league based by hip-hop icon Ice Dice, was the topic of a report this week linking it to Iowa faculty basketball celebrity Caitlin Clark. Based on the report, the BIG3 has provided Clark several million dollars to play within the league. The provide would solely be for a handful of video games and wouldn’t preclude Clark from taking part in within the WNBA.
In a put up to X on Wednesday, Ice Dice mentioned that that they had meant for issues to stay personal however confirmed that the provide had been made.
“We meant the provide to stay personal whereas Clark performs for the championship. However I gained’t deny what’s now already on the market: BIG3 made a historic provide to Clark,” Ice Cube wrote. “Why wouldn’t we? Caitlin is a generational athlete who can obtain great success within the BIG3.
“With our provide, Clark could make historical past and break down much more limitations for ladies athletes,” he added. “America’s girls athletes shouldn’t be pressured to spend their off seasons taking part in in usually dismal and doubtful overseas nations simply to make ends meet. And they need to have greater than only one skilled choice within the US at a time when American professional sports activities leagues are being infiltrated by autocratic, anti-women regimes reminiscent of Qatar. Our pathbreaking provide to Clark demonstrates that BIG3 now gives one other selection for athletes.”
Ice Dice additionally famous his league’s observe file of feminine inclusion, particularly with Basketball Corridor of Famers Nancy Lieberman and Lisa Leslie, who’re head coaches of their league. Granted, the assertion to X (which you’ll learn in full here) appeared very rigorously crafted, virtually as if written by a PR particular person. It was additionally posted roughly an hour after the report about their provide to Clark surfaced, main many to take a position that Ice Dice’s assertion may need been a coordinated transfer.
In any case, Clark is the NCAA’s all-time main girls’s scorer and presently has Iowa within the Candy 16 of the ladies’s NCAA Match. On the one hand, Clark continues to be initially of her basketball profession and could also be an odd slot in a BIG3 league comprised of gamers on the finish of theirs. However, although, she could be making a whopping seven-figure sum for basically just some weeks of offseason work within the BIG3 (when the highest-paid gamers within the WNBA make lower than $250,000 per yr.)
It’d matter that Clark is already making a reported seven figures in NIL money regardless. However the BIG3’s provide, even when seemingly a publicity stunt at its core, ought to give Clark one thing to actually take into consideration.