Will Caitlin Clark accept Ice Cube’s $5 million offer to become BIG3’s first woman player?
Guard Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates as time runs out in the second half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during their second round match-up in the 2024 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball Championship at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on March 25, 2024, in Iowa City, Iowa.
Caitlin Clark’s women’s collegiate basketball career isn’t done yet, but the Iowa star has already received a rich offer to play for a professional league. And it’s not the WNBA. Ice Cube announced Wednesday on social media that his BIG3 three-on-three men’s basketball league offered Clark $5 million to become its first female player. The rapper, who formed the league with business partner Jeff Kwatinetz, did so in an X (previously Twitter) discussion that started with a repost of a TMZ tweet. “We intended the offer to remain private while Caitlin Clark plays for the championship,” Ice Cube tweeted, citing the Hawkeyes’ NCAA Tournament run that begins Saturday with a Sweet 16 meeting with Colorado. “But I won’t dispute what’s now already out there: BIG3 made a historic offer to Caitlin Clark. Why wouldn’t we? Caitlin is a generational athlete who can reach incredible success in the BIG3.” Clark, the all-time top scorer in NCAA Division I basketball, has declared for this year’s WNBA draft and is likely to be taken No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever. It remains to be seen whether the 6-foot guard is willing or even able to play for BIG3. That league goes from June through August, so there is lots of potential for clash with the WNBA, which starts in May and concludes in September.
The WNBA, its players’ association and representatives for Clark did not reply to requests for comment from The Los Angeles Times. The highest paid player in the WNBA is currently Jackie Young of the Las Vegas Aces, who inked a two-year deal at $252,450 a season. Assuming she gets picked by the Fever with the No. 1 choice, Clark would be eligible for a four-year, $338,056 deal. Clark currently makes over $1 million a year in endorsements and will no doubt enhance that amount as a pro player. But the money given by BIG3 might be challenging to turn down, especially because it might allow her to avoid following the overwhelming number of WNBA players who sign with overseas teams to boost their wages during the winter. “America’s women athletes should not be forced to spend their offseasons playing in often dismal and dubious foreign countries just to make ends meet,” Ice Cube wrote Wednesday on X. “And they should have more than just one professional option in the U.S. at a time when American pro sports leagues are being infiltrated by autocratic, anti-women regimes such as Qatar.,” Ice Cube continued in a separate tweet. “Our pathbreaking offer to Caitlin Clark demonstrates that BIG3 now offers another choice for athletes.” Heading into its eighth season, the BIG3 comprises a dozen clubs with lineups made up of former NBA players and international talent. Two of the teams are coached by women.
Former WNBA player and coach and NBA assistant coach Nancy Lieberman led the Power to the 2018 championship in her first season, and head coach, Lisa Leslie, a Basketball Hall of Famer and two-time WNBA champion with the Sparks, led the Triplets to the BIG3 crown the following season. “The naysayers laughed when we made Nancy Lieberman the first female coach of a men’s pro team, and she won the title in her first year. Then Lisa Leslie won it all in year two,” Ice Cube tweeted. “With our offer, Caitlin Clark can make history and break down even more barriers for women athletes.”
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