Ice Cube Is Challenging The Olympic 3x3 Gold Medal Winner To Face BIG3's Best Team For $150K

Say what you want about Ice Cube but the man knows what he's doing. As someone who is studying the craft, I'd say he's mastered the art of making bets that you know the other side will never accept. This reminds me of the ol' Pornhub sex tape model of putting a big number out to catch the public's eye, knowing damn well the celebrity would never actually do it. First he offered Caitlin Clark $10 million to play in his league, taking over the headlines of the internet for the day. And now he's challenging the Olympic 3on3 winner to play for $150,000. 

Now I don't think I'm a genius by any means, but I do consider myself to be smarter than the average bear. However I'm struggling with the reading comprehension here as to exactly what the bet is. Is he putting up $150,000 for the winner to take home? Or is he saying that each side needs to put up $150K and the winner takes the other teams money? Because if it's the first idea, I'm calling it a Good Idea. If it's the latter, I'm calling it a Bad Idea.

Here is the Latvia 3x3 Basketball Team, who sits at 7-0 and atop the standings of the Olympic Standings:

Who? Who? Who and who? Now don't get me wrong, 3x3 is a different game and these dudes probably pass and cut with the best of them, but now let me introduce you to the team currently sitting atop the BIG3 standings:

And the team currently in 2nd features Michael Beasley, Mario Chalmers, and Reggie Evans. A mere 33 NBA seasons between the trio. So the point is, the talent gap between those that play in the BIG3 and those that have to travel around playing in qualifying events to be allowed to play in Olympic 3x3 is significant. And for that reason, I'd set the line at former NBA starts -6.5 in a game to 21. But I'd be remiss if I didn't point out at the end of this blog that the way these dudes play 3x3 in the Olympics is MUCH different than the style that the BIG3 plays at. Who can set the pace? What rules do we play under? Because as much as Joe Johnson can probably break down every single player in the Olympics 1 on 1, I think he might give a big "fuck this" when he sees how quickly he has to transition to play defense against Latvia.