Ice Cube's upcoming "BIG3" 3-on-3 basketball league just landed a big fish, as Allen Iverson has reportedly committed to joining it for its inaugural season, according to sources who relayed that info to Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski. Iverson won't be a front office type, or commissioner, but rather one of the league's eight dual coaches/players. Feel free to get excited.
The 41-year-old Iverson, who hasn't played in the NBA since the 2009-10 season, will do a news conference in New York on Wednesday to elaborate on the part that he'll play in the association. Other former NBAers who have committed to participate as either players or coaches in the half-court league include: Kenyon Martin, Gary Payton, Rashard Lewis, Chauncey Billups, Jason Williams, Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson.
The league, which was announced publicly in December, is the result of a partnership between ex-player/executive director of the NBA Players' Association, Roger Mason, as well as the aforementioned Ice Cube. It will consist of eight three-on-three teams of five players touring various cities over the course of ten weeks, and will begin after the NBA Finals wrap up.
Ice Cube explained the idea between the enterprise to The Vertical last month. "I thought of this concept as a fan who got sick of seeing his heroes retire and not play anymore," he said. "A lot of these guys can still play once they retire–just not the back-to-backs or four games in five nights." Whether that's true remains to be seen.
The BIG3 professional league is set to launch this summer. It seems highly likely that many more details will be revealed about it between now and then. We'll be sure to update you if/when they do.
