Ice Cube Gives BIG3 Update In Response To Coronavirus Lockdown

Much like everything else in the world, the sports community is being heavily affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Following last week’s big announcement of the NBA shutdown, many have wondered how the disease will affect other arena sports like the BIG3 league. Thankfully, Ice Cube was able to set the record straight during his recent visit to Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club.

Meg Oliphant/BIG3 Getty Images

While the half-hour convo touched on many topics, including his return to music, movies and his involvement in the upcoming Claressa Shields biopic Flint Strong, Cube gave some important insight into how BIG3 has been affected by coronavirus and what the future holds in terms of upcoming games. “We still doing our thing,” Cube cooly said, further adding, “we got a contingency plan, though.” He says BIG3 still plans to come to Memphis and New York when it begins on June 20, but that six games will be held at a non-arena-style location in Los Angeles to play things safe. He went on say that he’s “excited” to see the more contained set design they have planned, adding that having a plan set up like this is very important for their league since they don’t have ownership to arenas to freely make plans that could easily be canceled at the last minute by the government. “On the road, we hope that it blows over,” the seasoned rapper-turned-actor says of COVID-19 affecting plans for the BIG3 playoffs and championship moving forward, and we can only hope for the same as well. 

The topic of the late Kobe Bryant’s involvement in playing in a BIG3 game also came up, with Ice Cube honestly stating, “he was the biggest fish we could catch, and he was actually done. He didn’t want to play no more.”

Watch Ice Cube’s full interview with The Breakfast Club below, where he speaks even more on Kobe, getting jacked by the All-Star game and the current state of Black cinema amongst other things: