{"id":70924,"date":"2024-03-28T08:55:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T12:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=70924"},"modified":"2024-03-28T08:55:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T12:55:18","slug":"ice-cube-offers-historic-contract-caitlin-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/28\/ice-cube-offers-historic-contract-caitlin-clark\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Mogul Offers Historic Contract to All-Time Leading Scorer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Confirming reports from earlier that day, media mogul and former rap artist O\u2019Shea Jackson Sr. (better known by his stage name \u201cIce Cube\u201d) reveals that he offered women\u2019s basketball sensation Caitlin Clark what could be a revolutionary $5 million offer to play in the BIG3 basketball league.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">We intended the offer to remain private while Caitlin Clark plays for the championship. But I won\u2019t deny what\u2019s now already out there: BIG3 made a historic<br \/>\noffer to Caitlin Clark. Why wouldn\u2019t we? Caitlin is a generational athlete who can achieve tremendous success in the BIG3. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cwzHh7EVau\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/cwzHh7EVau<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ice Cube (@icecube) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/icecube\/status\/1772992226047443122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 27, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Caitlin Clark Receives $5 Million Offer to Play in BIG3<\/h2>\n<p>Jackson\u2019s offer was met with skepticism and ridicule.<\/p>\n<p>Most believe Jackson\u2019s offer to be a disingenuous money grab. More to the point, they don\u2019t believe Jackson cares about <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2020\/07\/27\/brooklyn-nets-kyrie-irving-commits-1-5-million-to-support-wnba-players\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">empowering women\u2019s basketball players<\/a>. As Jackson <a href=\"https:\/\/adage.com\/article\/news\/ice-cube-coors-light-burger-king-gay-marriage\/234803\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">openly expressed support<\/a> for same-sex marriage in 2012 and hired Hall of Fame guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/l\/liebena01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nancy Lieberman<\/a> in 2018, that seems outside of his character. Nonetheless, Clark <em>is<\/em> the first women\u2019s basketball player that he\u2019s known to have offered to play in exhibitions.<\/p>\n<p>This is likely due to Clark\u2019s prominence in the sports world. She\u2019s perhaps <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/10\/16\/iowa-hawkeyes-crossover-kinnick-game-sets-record-attendence\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the most popular<\/a> women\u2019s basketball player in either the NCAA or the WNBA. Compared to two-time NBA MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/curryst01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Curry<\/a>, Clark is projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft.<\/p>\n<p>From a business standpoint, it makes all too much sense for Jackson to make the offer. Accepting a $5 million offer also makes sense for Clark. The highest-paid WNBA players make under $250,000 annually.<\/p>\n<p>However, the BIG3 regular season takes place from June to August. As a result, it\u2019s likely to infringe upon her WNBA schedule, which will span from May to September. Logistically, Clark would have more obstacles to hurdle than the average W player. That\u2019s assuming that neither the BIG3 nor the WNBA would make her choose between the two.<\/p>\n<h3>Caitlin Clark\u2019s Response<\/h3>\n<p>Clark, averaging 31.8 points, 8.8 assists, 7.8 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per game this season, hasn\u2019t addressed the situation publicly. It would seem that she hasn\u2019t officially declined the offer. Nonetheless, the home state hero is trying to lead Iowa to their first-ever title after losing to LSU in the 2023 National Championship Game. That being said, her focus may simply be elsewhere right now.<\/p>\n<p>A four-time AP All-American, Clark is the NCAA\u2019s all-time leader in points (3,830), second in 3s (528), and third in assists (1,105).<\/p>\n<h3>BIG3 Primer<\/h3>\n<p>Founded by Jackson and entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz in 2017, the league was originally set up as an alternative for retired or unemployed professional basketball players. Since 2018, Basketball Hall of Fame inductee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/drexlcl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clyde Drexler<\/a> has been the league\u2019s Commissioner. Last season, Boston Celtics star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brownja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaylen Brown<\/a> became the first active NBA player <a href=\"https:\/\/big3.com\/news\/big3-adds-jaylen-brown-to-all-star-game-at-the-o2-arena-in-london\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to suit up for<\/a> the BIG3, playing in the BIG3 All-Star Game.<\/p>\n<p>Last November, the Basketball Hall of Fame <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoophall.com\/news\/naismith-basketball-hall-of-fame-and-ice-cube-announce-inaugural-ice-cube-impact-award\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">partnered with<\/a> Jackson to create the Ice Cube Impact Award. In January, he <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Xyzm9H5xO1E?si=SDAQSCZbwcjFsdnc\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">won the inaugural Impact Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Confirming reports from earlier that day, media mogul and former rap artist O\u2019Shea Jackson Sr. (better known by his stage name \u201cIce Cube\u201d) reveals that he offered women\u2019s basketball sensation Caitlin Clark what could be a revolutionary $5 million offer to play in the BIG3 basketball league. We intended the offer to remain private while [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":70934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,3],"tags":[50350,49063,4562],"class_list":["post-70924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-news","tag-big3","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-wnba-draft"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}