If you follow along with our website and our podcast, you must love Basketball as much as we do. Once October comes up on the calendar, nothing else matters to us until the end of June. Then of course there's the draft, and the NBA having the best free agency in all of sports. But, this summer, basketball had something a little different. Even with familiar faces.
The Big3 had their inaugural season this summer where eight teams that consisted of former NBA stars played 3-on-3 half-court basketball with the first team to score 50 points winning. Did the league have it's gimmicks you would expect it to? Well, yeah, of course, but it was a really fun and entertaining product that gave former NBA stars their chance to get back the competitiveness that got them to where they were at their best.
Our team was fortunate enough to cover the Lexington, Kentucky event and we were really impressed with the competitiveness of the games, the organization, and also just how the players we hadn't seen in a long time still had their skills. Seeing guys like Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Bonzi Wells, Kenyon Martin, DeShawn Stevenson, Rashard Lewis, and so many more put it all out there like they were competing to clinch a seed in the NBA playoffs was really fun and something where you could see how grateful all those guys were to be able to play competitive professional basketball on a big stage again.
As a guy who always has his "Basketball jones," this league definitely fed that need for live hoops to watch while almost every Eastern Conference star got traded between June and August. Ice Cube and crew really hit a home run with this league and from what we were told in conference calls, this is only the beginning.
According to the Big3 commissioner and former NBA player Roger Mason Jr., a lot of former NBA players have contacted the league owners looking to join in next season. Hell, there were reports that Cleveland Cavaliers coach Ty Lue attended the Big3 Championship in Vegas to scout former NBA player, and member of the Trilogy team, Rashad McCants to join the Cavs for the upcoming season, if that tells you what people think of the league and what these players are doing.
There are still some kinks to work out, there's no doubt about that. But, for this being the first year and seeing what all they can bring in making basketball a year round league, I was really impressed with the product. I can't wait to see how this grows for year two, and also what former stars come and join in for the 2018 summer.
Tim Daniel is a host of 48 Minutes Podcast and can be found talking NBA, sneakers and life @TimDaniel518
