Ice Cube and his barnstorming Big3 basketball league have been hit with a $250 million lawsuit that accuses "Mr. Cube" of threatening former NBA players if they participated in a newly formed rival league, the New York Daily News reported, citing a filing in Manhattan Superior Court.
Champion Basketball League founder Carl George — whose league initially partnered with Big3 as they sought to get them launched — also says in the suit that Big3's co-founders, Ice Cube (real name: O'Shea Jackson) and Jeff Kwatinez, got close to CBL executives only to steal proprietary ideas.
"When certain players expressed their desire to participate in the CBL games, Mr. Cube confronted the players personally about playing in the CBL and threatened the players that they would be fined, not allowed to participate in the (Big3's) 52% of revenues bonus pool, or replaced on their teams. These threats were also shared with the CBL,” the court papers claim, adding, "The Big3 was aware that it signed at least 20 players who also signed contracts with the CBL."
The Big3's first season this summer featured former NBA players such as Allen Iverson, Kenyon Martin, Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Rashard Lewis and Chauncey Billups on teams coached by legendary former players like Julius Erving, George Gervin and Rick Barry.
Neither Ice Cube's nor Big3's representatives and attorneys commented on the lawsuit to the Daily News.
