BIG3 Season 9 tips off this Saturday, June 21, bringing professional 3-on-3 basketball back to Los Angeles after a full year off the court.
The league announced on Instagram that all team matchups are set and rosters are locked ahead of opening day. Games air live at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT on CBS. Tickets are on sale now for in-person attendance at Intuit Dome in Inglewood.
BIG3 launched in 2017. Ice Cube co-founded the league alongside entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz. The pitch was simple: sign former NBA players, run 3-on-3, and fill the summer with professional basketball. The schedule falls right in the gap after the NBA Finals. Nine seasons later, the league is still running.
Ice Cube has stayed a visible presence with the league. His involvement helped BIG3 get attention early on and kept it on the radar for sports fans who might otherwise skip a 3-on-3 summer league.
The format is built for speed. First team to 50 points wins. There’s a four-point line on the court, set farther out than the standard three-point arc. Games are quick. You’re not grinding through a slow second half with the outcome already settled.
BIG3 built its identity on former NBA names who still had game left in them. The 3-on-3 structure cuts away the depth charts and rotation decisions. What’s left is a faster, more concentrated version of basketball. That’s been the draw since the beginning.
The CBS partnership is one of BIG3’s real advantages. Most leagues at a comparable level end up on cable packages or streaming platforms behind a paywall. BIG3 airs on broadcast television every Saturday afternoon. Anyone with an antenna gets it for free. For a league still building its audience, that kind of reach matters.
Season 9 is set at Intuit Dome in Inglewood. The arena opened in 2024 as the Clippers’ purpose-built home and has been well-regarded for its design and fan experience. That puts BIG3 in one of the better new venues in the country, right in the middle of a major market.
For anyone in the LA area, the decision is pretty simple. Live professional basketball at a top arena on a summer Saturday. Tickets are available now.
BIG3 has never quite broken into the mainstream. But it has held a consistent spot in the summer sports calendar for nearly a decade. The summer window, the CBS deal, and the format have helped it survive. Other alternative leagues from that same stretch didn’t.
The BIG3 Instagram post was direct: “A whole year of waiting ends Saturday. Matchups are set. The teams are locked. Season 9 is here.”
That’s the setup. Tip-off is Saturday at 4 p.m. ET on CBS, live from Intuit Dome.
This story originally appeared on Celebrityinsider
