Ice Cube's Big3 basketball league has canceled its 2020 season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The league announced that a number of issues including safety, testing uncertainty, changing government regulations, insurance and liability issues, sponsor and advertiser challenges, and the changing nature of the virus itself, led Big3 to scrap its 2020 plans and instead focus on returning in 2021.
“We tried everything in our power to give our fans a nice 2020 season but with a long list of obstacles, we decided to shift our focus to having a great 2021 season with our fans in the stands," league co-founder Ice Cube said in a statement.”
In Monday's announcement, Big3 noted that as a "rising league "it needs "to put the fan experience above all and ensure each season is better than the one before."
Big3 is also planning to launch a reality-show-style 3-on-3 tournament called "BIG3: Not in My House" sometime before its 2021 season. Production on the project hasn't been able to move forward because network and studio productions are all on hold due to the coronavirus, the league said.
League co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz added that they are "frustrated and disappointed that we can’t see BIG3 played this year," but are looking forward to the league resuming during summer 2021.
