Ice Cube Crushes Sports: BIG3 Basketball Becomes First Publicly Traded Sports League With $290M Valuation Ice Cube’s BIG3 basketball league is going public, becoming the first professional sports league to trade on Wall Street. Nolan Strong • Jun 13, 2026 @ 3:02 PM New York, NY - 01/11/2017 - On Wednesday, January 11, producer, actor and music legend Ice Cube, former NBA player and former Deputy Executive Director of the NBPA Roger Mason Jr., and entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz will host a press conference in New York City to officially announce the launch of the BIG3, a new, professional 3-on-3 basketball league. -PICTURED: Ice Cube -PHOTO by: Fernando Lucena/startraksphoto.com -LUC_13756.JPG Startraks Photo New York, NY For licensing please call 212-414-9464 or email [email protected] Featuring: Ice Cube Where: New York, New York, United States When: 11 Jan 2017 Credit: FERNANDO LUCENA/startraksphoto.c Ice Cube is about to make history by taking his revolutionary 3-on-3 basketball league to Wall Street, and it’s the moment BIG3 has been building toward since day one. The league just announced a definitive agreement with Graf Global Corp, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, to merge and become the first publicly traded professional sports league in the United States. When the deal closes in the fourth quarter of 2026, the combined company will trade under the ticker symbol “TONT” (3-on-3) on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE American, or Nasdaq, with BIG3 valued at $290 million on a pre-money basis. “Going public is our next step. This lifts us to a bigger stage, accelerates our international potential and gives our fans a way to grow with us, support us and participate in our success,” Ice Cube said. Join Us AllHipHop’s Daily News Service Delivering news to inboxes since 1999. We break it. They take it. Get it first, straight from AllHipHop. Sign up for exclusives This isn’t just a business move. It’s validation. For years, Ice Cube and co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz fought through legal battles, allegations of a hostile workplace, and investor disputes to keep BIG3 alive and thriving. When the Champions Basketball League filed a $250 million lawsuit against BIG3 in 2017, claiming the league had defrauded them, Ice Cube’s team didn’t back down. BIG3 won a $21 million defamation judgment against the Champions League and its owner Carl George, proving that the league’s rapid growth and success were legitimate, not stolen. They’ve weathered everything from Qatari investor disputes to contract battles with major law firms, and each time they came out stronger. Now the numbers speak for themselves. Last season, BIG3 averaged more than 550,000 viewers on CBS and generated over a billion social media impressions. The league operates eight city-based teams across Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and the DMV, with legendary coaches like Dr. J, Nancy Lieberman, and Gary Payton leading squads featuring former NBA stars Michael Beasley, Corey Brewer, Dwight Howard, and Joe Johnson. Season 9 tips off June 20 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, with the championship game scheduled for August 22 in Charlotte. The league’s already got international reach too, with games streaming on Migu in China and TV Globo in Brazil. Related Category: News Tag: BIG3 , Hip-Hop News , ice cube , Rap News About Nolan Strong
Curated by Taleb Kabbara · Source: allhiphop.com