Ice Cube continues to make major moves with his three-on-three basketball league BIG3 since he just partnered with Facebook.
Starting on June 22, the social site will live stream the league’s games for a nine week period, with one game being shown each Friday. The news comes after Cube and partner Jeff Kwatinetz scored a broadcasting deal with Fox Sports in March of last year.
In a press release, Kwatinetz said it was important to put the league’s match ups in digital form, because much of the fan base is so young.
“As a start-up professional sports league, we have an innate flexibility that allows us to adapt and cater to our growing audience,” he explained. “Given that our fans had an average age of more than 10 years younger than typical basketball fans, we want to provide digital viewing experiences so they can engage with our league in a format that best suits their viewing preferences. We couldn’t be more excited to work with FOX Sports and Facebook to present the BIG3 in a new and exciting format for our fans.”
In addition to the nine live streams, viewers will also have access to a highlight package that’ll allow them to get recaps of all 37 games, including the championship that’ll be in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Aug. 24.
Meanwhile, Ice Cube is taking BIG3 globally, because he and commissioner of the league Clyde Drexler — formerly of the Houston Rockets — are currently in Beijing to announce a series of exhibition games in China.
Those match ups will take place after the BIG3 championship in the U.S. wraps up, and the players will then head over to China to compete against the local talent. On top of that, Cube is in discussions to give China its own league, but those talks are still in the early stages.
Earlier this month, the former N.W.A. member promoted the league’s opening day by reuniting some of the cast members of his 1995 film “Friday,” and it’s gotten a lot of attention.
You can watch that promo clip below and stream the first game on June 22 by following BIG3 on FOX’s Facebook page.
.@IceCube and some of his old friends have a message for you…. #Friday pic.twitter.com/QFe6J7wd1R
— BIG3 on CBS (@thebig3) June 5, 2018
