Ice Cube‘s historic Big3 offer has received a response from Iowa Hawkeyes’ baller, Caitlin Clark, who earlier this month became NCAA Division I basketball’s all-time leading scorer.
According to CNN, when speaking to the media before her team’s Sweet 16 matchup against Colorado on Saturday (March 30), Clark expressed her own surprise regarding the announcement.
“To be honest, I found out about the Big3 thing at the exact time you all did, and my main focus is on just playing basketball,” revealed Clark. “I honestly don’t talk about those things with really anybody. I have other people that deal with it, and they haven’t said a word to me about it. My main focus is on this team and helping us find a way to beat Colorado and hopefully win another one after that.”
Cube may also have some competition for the young baller’s talents. CNN also reports that Clark snagged an invite to USA Basketball’s Olympic training camp in Cleveland. Though, both Clark and Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder are banking on her focus being on the women’s Final Four.
On Wednesday (March 27), TMZ revealed that Cube had offered Clark $5 million to play in his three-on-three basketball league, which would make her the first woman to do so.
The lucrative deal would see Clark participate in eight regular season games and potentially two playoff games if her team advanced to the postseason.
Clark would also receive “substantial additional compensation” from merchandising and sponsorships while also still being allowed to play in the WNBA.
The 22-year-old has already announced her eligibility for the 2024 WNBA Draft next month and is anticipated to be selected as the number one pick, set to join the Indiana Fever.
Shortly after the report emerged, the legendary West Coast MC addressed the news on Instagram, describing the offer as an opportunity to “make history and break down even more barriers for women athletes.”
“We intended the offer to remain private while Caitlin Clark plays for the championship. But I won’t deny what’s now already out there: BIG3 made a historic offer to Caitlin Clark,” he began.
“Why wouldn’t we? Caitlin is a generational athlete who can achieve tremendous success in the BIG3. The skeptics laughed when we made Nancy Lieberman the first female coach of a men’s pro team, and she won the championship in her first year.
“Then Lisa Leslie won it all in year two. With our offer, Caitlin Clark can make history and break down even more barriers for women athletes.”
He continued: “America’s women athletes should not be forced to spend their off seasons playing in often dismal and dubious foreign countries just to make ends meet. And they should have more than just one professional option in the US at a time when American pro sports leagues are being infiltrated by autocratic, anti-women regimes such as Qatar.
“Our pathbreaking offer to Caitlin Clark demonstrates that BIG3 now offers another choice for athletes.”
Launched in 2017, BIG3 quickly garnered attention for being the first and only Black-owned sports league.
This young lady is already making millions more than some of the women in the WNBA. Why he didn’t extend one of those lady’s/women’s an offer like this especially already knowing a lot their financial situation with the low salaries they make in the WNBA. Or two of them even for that amount That would have seemed to make a lot more sense to me. But that’s just my opinion tho.
Why would he make an offer to an WNBA player? WNBA is owned by the NBA which is worth roughly $86 billion versus Big3 is worth around 100-300 million and the NBA has refused to work any type of deals with Cube. The NBA has pretty much kept Big3 from getting big media coverage by the big networks and sports channels as it should. NBA has more than enough money to make the WNBA a much better pro league than what it currently is and paying their players a much better salary. Yes, the WNBA losses money, but also the NBA has not done it any favors at all. At least this type of offer may force the NBA to take the WNBA more seriously.
Sounds good but somebody has to watch it and go to the games. So they could put the kindness of their hearts but it’s business 🤷🏽♂️ it doesn’t make good business sense to give em billions n you barely making millions back off the product 🤦🏽