The Big3 league has carved out a nice niche for itself in the world of basketball. The brainchild of Ice Cube, the league has featured many former NBA players in a fun, fan-friendly 3-on-3 format. The league made headlines for offering WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark $5 million to play a year ago, an offer she turned down.
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Clark was still at the University of Iowa at the time, but she was already one of the biggest basketball stars, male or female, in the world. Since joining the WNBA, her star has only risen even higher, as she led her Indiana Fever to the playoffs in her Rookie of the Year-winning first season.
From a marketing perspective, landing Clark would have been a coup for the Big3, and to be fair, even making the offer was a brilliant marketing ploy because of the publicity that ensued. It did have some detrimental side effects though, as Lou Williams told The Underground Lounge podcast.
Williams revealed that Ice Cube tried to recruit him to play, even making what he called “a pretty decent offer.” Things turned though when he found out what Clark had been offered, and that changed Williams’ mind on joining.
“I thought it was a good offer, and then that same day he made that offer to me, he offered Caitlin Clark $5 million,” Williams said.
He continued, “My thing was like, ‘Hold on,’ because how it was presented to me was, ‘We’re doing what we can.’ That’s how it was presented like, ‘Work with me here.’ When I saw that number I was like, ‘Hold up, y’all n***** playing.'”
Williams felt like the Big3 could have landed him and several other former NBA stars like Jamal Crawford, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwight Howard, for even half the amount Clark was offered, and it put him in a bad head space for joining the league.
Ultimately, Williams turned it down, saying, “I just felt like it was borderline disrespectful.”
Lou Williams is right that it would have been better for everyone involved if the Big3 went after a handful of former NBA stars instead of Caitlin Clark
You can’t blame Williams for feeling disrespected when he found out that he was getting comparatively lowballed, but he doesn’t have any ill will about it. He understands what a phenomenon Clark is, and he made sure to say that he believes that “she’s earned everything she’s getting.”
He’s right, though, that Clark playing in the Big3 is a no-win situation for everyone involved. It wouldn’t benefit Clark to go against grown men, especially those who are slightly over the hill and no longer playing in the NBA. Beating them wouldn’t impress anybody, but getting physically bullied would be a bad look for her.
Clark would definitely have a target on her back, especially since no former NBA player would want to get shown up by a female, no matter how great she is. Landing Clark would have set the news cycle on fire initially, but signing a slew of players like the ones Williams mentioned would have brought much more long-term interest to the league.
Clark has been very discerning about what offers she’s been willing to accept. She turned down the Big3 and also chose not to participate in an NBA/WNBA crossover three-point shootout with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Sabrina Ionescu at NBA All-Star Weekend.
She also turned down the chance to play in the first season of Unrivaled, the women’s 3-on-3 league that was founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. At the end of the day, it looks like everybody made the right choice in this one. The Big3 was smart to offer Clark to get into the news cycle, and Clark was right to turn it down.
Having Lou Williams and others as a consolation prize would have been nice, but you can’t blame him for feeling undervalued because of the Clark news. Maybe someday that will change, but either way, everybody seems to be at peace with how things turned out.
