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The best and worst of the BIG3 inaugural season
Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

The best and worst of the BIG3 inaugural season

The first season of the BIG3 is in the books. Trilogy went the whole summer without losing a game despite losing Kenyon Martin for a few weeks. Rashard Lewis was the league's MVP, we got to hear Gus Johnson call basketball for a few hours every week and we get to do it all again next year as the BIG3 was renewed for another season by Fox Sports. 

For the most part, the league was an overwhelming success, but here, we're going to take a look at all of the highs and lows of the year. 

 
1 of 20

Best: Ice Cube got a lot of former NBA stars to join

Best: Ice Cube got a lot of former NBA stars to join
Ronald Martinez / Getty Images

The biggest reason the BIG3 had any success this season is that Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz were able to get a handful of former NBA All-Stars to join the league in its first season. millennial and Gen X fans got to see a lot of their favorite players on the court while boomers got to see some of their favorite players on the sidelines as coaches. There was someone there for fans of all ages.

 
2 of 20

Worst: Injuries kept some of those stars off the court

Worst: Injuries kept some of those stars off the court
Al Bello / Getty Images

Corey Maggette, Jason Williams and Kenyon Martin all suffered injuries that either ended their seasons or kept them out for several weeks. Allen Iverson, the league’s biggest draw, suffered a minor injury and only played in three games and a total of 27 minutes all season. Luckily, there was a number of other guys who were able to step up and keep the league interesting.

 
3 of 20

Best: Trilogy finished the season undefeated

Best: Trilogy finished the season undefeated
Mark J. Rebilas / USA TODAY Sports

Rashad McCants, Al Harrington, Kenyon Martin, James White and Dion Glover ran the table and looked great doing it all season. They gelled early and were the only team with enough collective resolve to come back from games in which they were down multiple possessions. White was phenomenal defensively, and McCants carried them everywhere else. 

 

 
4 of 20

Worst: Watching the Ball Hogs wasn’t the greatest experience

Worst: Watching the Ball Hogs wasn’t the greatest experience
Jeremy Brevard / USA TODAY Sports

25 percent of all games featured Brian Scalabrine’s Ball Hogs. The team was poorly constructed and wasn’t particularly great on either side of the ball. Throw in the fact that head coach Rick Barry got into a weird argument over LeBron James this summer, and you have the worst team in the BIG3. 

 

 
5 of 20

Best: Rashard Lewis got buckets

Best: Rashard Lewis got buckets
Christian Petersen / Getty Images

Sweet Lew led the league in scoring by holding off the Killer 3s' Stephen Jackson in the final two weeks of the season, which led to him winning the first BIG3 MVP award over Rashad McCants. 

 
6 of 20

Worst: Team names

Worst: Team names
Al Bello / Getty Images

Not all of the names were awful, but it felt like the BIG3 was trying a tad bit too hard to make team names that had the idea of "three" work. Killer 3s worked, but 3-Headed Monsters, Trilogy and Tri-State (would be different if tied to a geographic part of the country) all felt forced. Oh, and Ghost Ballers? Sounds like a hacky group of characters from "Ernest Scared Stupid." 

 
7 of 20

Best: Regular-season awards

Best: Regular-season awards
Mitchell Leff / Getty Images

After regular awards like MVP, Coach of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, the BIG3 also gave away awards for Too Hard to Guard (Al Harrington), Best Trash Talker (Stephen Jackson) and Best Dressed (Cuttino Mobley). The unique awards help build on an identity that the BIG3 is going to need in order to succeed as a league in the future. 

 
8 of 20

Worst: BIG3 might have an issue with time moving forward

Worst: BIG3 might have an issue with time moving forward
Ronald Martinez / Getty Images

The only reason the BIG3 was watchable on television is that it was highly edited. If future goals include live telecasts, the higher-ups are going to have to do one of two things: cut down the final score or split up the number of games in a single night. This is probably the single most important issue the BIG3 is going to have to solve.

 
9 of 20

Best: The league traveled

Best: The league traveled
Jeremy Brevard / USA TODAY Sports

The BIG3 made 10 stops around the country, playing in cities as large as New York and Los Angeles to those as small as Lexington, Ky. The best stop on the tour might have been Seattle, a city that lost its NBA team but was able to see former Sonics Gary Payton and Rashard Lewis.

 
10 of 20

Worst: Allen Iverson’s no-show in Dallas

Worst: Allen Iverson’s no-show in Dallas
Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images

Allen Iverson was easily the biggest draw for the first BIG3 season, and it was hard to imagine him committing a bigger crime than not suiting up in Philly. Instead, he skipped out on the trip to Dallas, raising questions about the seriousness of the league. He was suspended for a week and re-emerged in Los Angeles. It’s not surprising, but it was a pretty bad look.

 
11 of 20

Best: Ice Cube was the perfect face of the league

Best: Ice Cube was the perfect face of the league
Mark J. Rebilas / USA TODAY Sports

You could tell from his first interviews about the BIG3 that Cube was passionate about this project, and it showed from Week 1 through Week 10. The BIG3 averaged 11,000 in-arena fans in its first season, and a lot of those fans were there for Cube as much as they were there for the basketball. 

 
12 of 20

Best and Worst: Stephen Jackson and Charles Oakley

Best and Worst: Stephen Jackson and Charles Oakley
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images

I have no doubts that if Stephen Jackson was a decade older, YouTube would be full of videos of him and Charles Oakley getting into fights over whether it was OK to push Michael Jordan. Instead, they got into a pair of heated player-coach arguments that can only happen with guys with their alpha personalities. At the end of the day, it was all love between the two. 

 
13 of 20

Best: Celebrities from all walks of life

Best: Celebrities from all walks of life
Mark J. Rebilas / USA TODAY Sports

Cube and Kwatinetz were able to harness their Rolodexes to get a huge number of celebrity faces sitting courtside during the games. Athletes from the NBA, NFL, MLB and even NASCAR (who had Jeff Gordon going to a game?) all showed up to watch the games. There was also a plethora of singers, rappers and actors all showing support. 

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14 of 20

Best and Worst: Ice Cube vs. LaVar Ball four-point challenge

Best and Worst: Ice Cube vs. LaVar Ball four-point challenge
Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images

LaVar Ball and Ice Cube faced off in a four-point challenge, with Cube beating Lonzo Ball’s father 2-1. LaVar Ball continues to fluctuate between the best and worst new face to the basketball world, and it was more of the same during the BIG3 in Los Angeles.

 
15 of 20

Best: The four-point shot

Best: The four-point shot
Mat Hayward / Getty Images

Antoine Walker had one of the greatest quotes in NBA history when asked why he shot so many three-pointers: “Because there are no fours.” Seeing how the NBA is played, Walker was probably ahead of his time. But for the BIG3, the four-point shot is a gimmick that works within the flow of the game and as a challenge for fans during media days. 

 
16 of 20

Best: One free throw for two points

Best: One free throw for two points
Ron Jenkins / Getty Images

All of the pressure of two free throws in one shot. This cut away unnecessary waiting time and emphasized the shot instead of the exercise of shooting it. With the stakes higher, I think a lot of players’ free throw shooting would be much better knowing that a single free throw is worth twice as much.

 

 
17 of 20

Best: Fox Sports renews BIG3 for 2018 season

Best: Fox Sports renews BIG3 for 2018 season
Mark J. Rebilas / USA TODAY Sports

If there was going to be any metric to determine whether the BIG3 was a success in its first year, it’s that it will be back on television for a second season. A lot goes into just getting the league off the ground; gaining enough public interest to keep the league alive is all the BIG3 could ask for in year one. 

 
18 of 20

Best: More stars in the future?

Best: More stars in the future?
Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images

Lamar Odom has already expressed interest in playing, and Ice Cube says that he’s been recruiting for next year. Ricky Davis told the Washington Post that ex-teammates have been asking him about joining, too. The talent pool should be deeper next season, making the quality of play better on the court and a better draw to pique the interest of the fans. 

 

 
19 of 20

Best: No forced nicknames

Best: No forced nicknames
Mike Stobe / Getty Images

A few players had nicknames on the back of their jerseys. The Answer for Allen Iverson, Mr. Big Shot for Chauncey Billups and Sweet Lew for Rashard Lewis all work fine. For those without nicknames, they used surnames to prevent some of the outlandish nicknames we saw with MLB’s Players Weekend. 

 

 
20 of 20

Best: Championship trophy

Best: Championship trophy
Mark J. Rebilas / USA TODAY Sports

The trophy looked great during Trilogy’s title ceremony. The championship shirts and hats were also great. Trilogy looked genuinely happy as the team celebrated its undefeated season holding up that BIG3 Championship Trophy. We should be happy that the players had a decent-looking trophy to hold up. 

Phillip Barnett firmly believes in the healing power of a good snickerdoodle cookie. You can follow him on Twitter @regularbarnett.

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