The NBA is being investigated by the United States Department of Justice over allegations the league attempted to sabotage Ice Cube’s Big3 league, according to TMZ Sports. The league has denied the allegations.
Ice Cube and Big3 co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz have met with Department of Justice lawyers regarding concerns the NBA may have engaged in anticompetitive behavior.
The allegations include the NBA interfering with sponsorship deals, discouraging television networks from broadcasting games, and making arbitrary rules to prevent players from joining the league, despite the NBA and Big3 seasons not overlapping.
The report also claims Big3 officials believe they have been “unfairly targeted by the NBA” and sources in the story say NBA owners have been discouraged from investing in Ice Cube’s league.
NBA spokesman Mike Bass told TMZ the allegations were “not true”.
“We have been supportive of the Big3 since its inception, but we declined to invest.”
The NBA would face a substantial fine if found guilty.
I think it has more to do with avoiding unnecessary injuries in games/events that ultimately don’t matter. Nothing to do with embarrassment. I think most players have been especially hesitant to participate in extracurricular activities ever since PG broke his leg in that Olympic practice game.
This is the answer.
Oh hey Allen Iverson, how’s retirement going for you
I be crying
Embarassment is definitely part of it, just no player is going to say “yeah I’m afraid to get embarassed” but they will say “yeah I want to preserve my body”.
Has there ever been an injury in the dunk contest? LeBron wouldn’t do it his entire career which put a stop to superstars doing it basically singlehandedly. Is that to protect from injury?
It’s cost benefit analysis for both injury and reputation. Players receive little to no benefit for doing it at the risk of massive monetary and reputational injury.
Nobody had ever broken their leg in a Team USA showcase either and then it happened
T-Mac did.
In the end players can get injured at any time in their lives, avoiding doing stuff seems silly to me. Whats next, avoid practice and hitting the gym because they can get hurt as well?
Yep. But it would have been a nice collab with the Big 3 to feature them in the All Star weekend for like half a day.