Clyde Drexler is a basketball legend. He’s enshrined in the Hall of Fame twice, has an NBA championship, and is universally considered one of the best swingmen to ever play the game. Now, Drexler is ready to take on a new challenge, as he’s the commissioner of the BIG3 as the league enters its second season.
Before things tip off on June 22, we caught up with Drexler to discuss his new role leading the upstart 3-on-3 basketball league. And because he’s Clyde Drexler, we had to ask about how the two teams he suited up for during his NBA career — the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers — will do as they enter the postseason.
Uproxx Sports: First off I wanna ask, when did you get the call about becoming BIG3 commissioner and what was it that made you want to take on this role?
Clyde Drexler: First of all, it was a tremendous call. Jeff Kwatinetz called me and we talked about the BIG3 and he asked me if I’d like to become commissioner, of course. And I said, “Well, let me talk to my wife and think about it.” And it was an easy decision actually, but only because I had so much fun as the coach the previous summer.
Being a part of the BIG3, because I believe in Jeff’s and Ice Cube’s vision of what the BIG3 can become. And it’s already a pretty phenomenal league and it’s a league where our players are skilled and highly talented, and also a league that people love to see; 3-on-3 is at the core of every basketball fundamental. So to be able to have a professional 3-on-3 league and be a part of that, that’s been a ton of fun, ton of fun. The fans love it, the players love playing it and it’s just a lot of fun to be around.
Was there anything that surprised you in the first year as a coach about the league that maybe you weren’t sure about coming in and you were pleasantly surprised to see?
First of all, I was surprised to see how organized the BIG3 management team was, how well they did the lottery, the draft, the combine and how well they treat their players, coaches, the media and the people surrounding the BIG3. So the organization was strong. And two, I’m around guys like Julius Erving, George Gervin, Gary Payton, Rick Barry, guys I’ve known all my life, basically. The key ingredient is, we love basketball. And now we’re all coaches in the BIG3 and it was a ton of fun, to try to beat their teams and it is the most competitive league outside of the NBA in the world.
Were you surprised by that? Were you surprised at how into it everybody got with how competitive it was? You could see it in the players and you mentioned with the coaches. Did you expect it to be as competitive as well? I think as fans we weren’t sure exactly what it was going to be like because these were a lot of guys that were retired, a lot of guys that were at the tail end of careers. Were you surprised at all by that or is that what you were expecting from everybody?
Kinda like the general public, we all thought it was gonna be like the Champions Tour of tennis. The guys will compete but it wouldn’t be at the same level. But what we found out is, these guys are still in great shape, a lot of them could still play in the NBA and the fact that it’s half court, they can not only do what they can do, they can do it better. (laughs)
And so the league was much more competitive than I even envisioned it would be. The guys are in terrific shape, they’re young, they’re competitive and they’re highly motivated to win. So that’s what it made it so much fun: The skill level, the level of competition and the actual attention from the fans. The fans love it.
What are, going into this year as the commissioner and having seen what the foundation is in year one, what’s at the top of your list as something you want to accomplish and want to build on this season for the league?
As commissioner, you just want to build on what they’ve already started. Jeff Kwatinetz and Ice Cube and Amy Trask, all those people are real visionaries and the league that they started has been phenomenal. And my job as commissioner now is to kind of help continue to build, improve the fan and the player experience. To help this strategic partnerships, corporate partnerships to help grow a little bit more at a faster pace. And just to educate people about what the BIG3 is, around the world. It’s a lot of fun, it’s a lot of work, but I actually enjoy doing it.
What do you think is the biggest area that the league can improve for year two and beyond?
The biggest area I think of improvement is just to continue to inform and educate what the BIG3 is. The general public, ones who love it, love it. It’s almost like the BIG3 has a cult following already. But to get more people involved and know the names of the teams, the formats, the rules. Those are the things you gotta to continue to educate. The more people know about the game, the more they love it. That’s part of the process as well.
I know last year there were some rule tweaks in-season, the league obviously was learning on the fly. How confident are you that everything is now in a good place going forward, and are there any more tweaks that we’ll see for season two?
You never know about rule changes, if they don’t work we wanna get to the rule that works. But I will tell you, Ice Cube is real strict about his rules. He doesn’t change for anybody, the rules are set in stone. I like that, I really like that. It gives you structure, it gives you discipline as a league and the guys buy into it. Everyone knows the rules, they’re familiar with it. The second season’s always easier than the first. First season, no one really knew what to expect, but the second season, these guys are prepared, they’re ready.
And to show you there’s much more of a demand, there are about 80, 75 to 80, maybe even more, ex-NBAs players vying in the combine for only 19 spots in the BIG3. So you talk about demand, and these are big name NBA players fighting for spots to be in the BIG3. So you gotta bring your game to make a squad and that’s what Ice Cube’s envisioned when he started the BIG3. It’s all about the competition and the game.
You mentioned that you’ve got a bunch of new players entering the draft pool, new co-captains this year. Who’s a guy that you’re really excited to see, one of these new guys coming into the league that you think is really gonna have a big impact this season?
I think guys like Drew Gooden, Baron Davis, Amar’e Stoudemire, you got Nate Robinson, you got Metta World Peace, who’s gonna play as Ron Artest. And you got a few other big names that are gonna be in the combine that are trying to make teams. They just make our league stronger, more skillful and more competitive. And that’s what you want, you want the best players playing in your league.
We have some of the best coaches, and legendary coaches both men and women. Nancy Lieberman was at is as one of the coaches, Hall of Famer. And we expect her to compete like everyone else, and I think she’ll do a great job.
You’re signed on through 2020, what needs to happen over that three year period for you to consider this to be a successful tenure? Is it just growing the league and continuing to see it build?
We just wanna continue to see the league thrive and do all you can to make that happen. As commissioner, you have to have a great relationship with your players but also to the upper executives, you gotta make sure their mandates are all on target and in line. When we got great co-founders like Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz, it doesn’t get any better. These guys are smart, they include everyone, transparency, they make great decisions. It’s like their baby and so they really care about the BIG3.
I think Ice Cube, I don’t know if he sleeps. He’s working nonstop, night and day. It’s been a lot of fun to be a part of that. There’s a lot of excitement. We all can’t wait for the summer. It’s a good crew, it’s a great opportunity for the players to continue playing even after their NBA days and to have some affluence.
You mentioned building those corporate partnerships and this year you just announced the adidas partnership for apparel and then also with Fox you’re going to be going live this year. How important has it been to build those relationships and then specifically with being a live broadcast this year, how important is that to the league continuing its growth to be live and not on tape delay?
When you’re live, that’s when you know you’ve made it. To you get a corporate partner like adidas, that’s phenomenal, that’s a big deal for the BIG3, that puts us on another level. But to go live on Fox and FS1, throughout the whole year, that’s another big deal. We’re in 54 countries; the game is global. The BIG3 brand is building and growing because it’s a great sport and people relate to our game. And they know the athletes that are playing our game and they know it’s played at a very high level.
In the summer the NBA is not playing, we’re the best basketball league in the world in summer. So you gotta tune in.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you a couple NBA questions regarding your former teams the Blazers and the Rockets, who are both two of the top teams in the West right now. I want to start with Portland, they seemed to kind of surprise some people this year with the fact that they’re holding down the three seed. When you watch them, what’s something that you see that’s working really well for them and something that impresses you about the Blazers right now?
They got a really good backcourt. C.J. [McCollum] and Dame [Lillard] is a the top-three backcourt in the league, those guys can get it done a nightly basis. I do like the way they play defense, [Jusuf] Nurkic and [Al-Farouq] Aminu, those guys are all hustle. They’re well-coach, Terry Stotts is a good coach.
They have a little chemistry from last year because they were all together last season. It’s about continuity as well, the longer guys are together, the more they can figure it out. Hopefully they’ll keep that group together and get even better.
But this year they have a chance to do well in the playoffs. But anything is possible, the third seed in the West?
Yeah.
That’s pretty darn good.
And then looking at Houston, obviously they’ve got the best record in the league, the presumed MVP in James Harden. When you look at what they’ve been able to do this season and pushing the envelope as far as pace-and-space and the modern style of offense, would you put them as a favorite against the Warriors considering the way they’ve been playing? And your just general thoughts on the Rockets.
I think they should be. The Warriors are defending champions; you can’t win unless you go through them. But the Rockets have proven that they’re a worthy opponent, they got the best record in the regular season, which is a tremendous caveat for them, and they’re on a roll. James Harden, Chris Paul really playing well together. They’re motivated. They haven’t had a lot of playoff success, neither has Mike D’Antoni, the head coach. These guys are motivated a little bit more than the Warriors. That may be enough to get you over the hump, but you have to put up in the postseason if you’re the Houston Rockets.
Finally, if we ended up getting a Blazers/Rockets series, how torn would you be inside and how would you handle your rooting interests there?
We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. (laughs)
