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 used to sponsor "Hoop it Up" back in the late 90s into the 00's. It was HUGELY popular in some markets and in the beginning it was better run than Gus Macker.
But in later years we had waaaay more issues with Hoop it Up. One time they changed the location the NIGHT before the tourny was a huge pain in the ass. And One year they made us play a womens team because nobody signed up for the top gun league for women. We said we didn't want to play them so they told us it'd be a loss in pool play so we said fuck it and played them and beat them 21-4 and I got yelled at by one of the players moms for "going to hard" I told her we were forced to play them so there you go.