BIG3 Comes To Chicago After Nashville's Lack of Interest

The UIC Pavilion in Chicago is hosting BIG3 basketball today beginning at 2:00pm ET, but the city "initially wasn't on the schedule" because the league was "constrained to markets where Fox Sports already had crews in place." However, league execs "successfully pushed for the city to be added once they dropped Nashville." BIG3 co-Founder Ice Cube said, "Nashville didn't really see the picture how we saw it. They didn't really understand what we were doing with Big3 basketball. We had always talked about we need a big city like Chicago because they'll get it." Ice Cube added, "(Bridgestone Arena in Nashville) wasn't giving us enough love that we needed to pull this off. (Chicago) was on board faster." He said ticket sales were "pretty good; could be better" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 7/22).