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.
Is it not common for large companies to have “moonlighting” rules where employees can’t take another job that could interfere with their current one, especially if within the same industry? That does not strike me as illegal. Putting pressure on sponsors would be lame. But it seems perfectly reasonable for Adam Silver to tell NBA players they are not allowed to play in any other professional leagues while under contract with a team.
Yeah but from what I remember Ice Cube was positioning it as a pre and post league so more an alternative to the G League ( so some competition there along with colleges) and those that wanted to keep playing but not quite at an NBA level could semi-retire there as well like Iso Joe