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.
The NBA has become more like a business and less about basketball, in the sense that it only wants a 5v5 game as the NBA structures it. NBA will fine tune the on court product as it sees fit through the rule changes that led to open games and more dunks+3s and more scoring (less big men post play as evident from FIBA just past).
Some mentioned injuries or contractual obligations that bar players - that’s just part of the business and contracts are based on CBA negotiations. Some mentioned that players didn’t want to embarrass themselves especially the established players - probably true to an extent and they want to preserve their image of being worth their contract - part of the business. But I’d love to see someone like FVV go against Tobias Harris 1v1 to see who’s overpaid, and I bet there are players who won’t back down from a challenge.
What it boils down to is that the NBA as it’s structured now is more about business. They want to expand the game internationally and they are doing the in season tournament, but the NBA game structure is defined in their 5v5 product. I don’t see them tweaking it. And hopefully there are others that can compete with them because this monopoly business isn’t great for basketball.