There’s just no getting over it — the first thing you noticed when heading to your seats for Saturday night’s BIG3 basketball tripleheader at Vivint Smart Home Arena is that the court is a lot shorter than usual and there’s only one hoop. You know this going in, of course, considering the league is a halfcourt, 3-on-3 affair, but the visual is still jarring.
Those are just a few of the many components that distinguish the BIG3 from the NBA. There’s a ton of little gameplay things that take some getting used to — the guy taking the ball out of bounds being allowed to just dribble in; every trip to the free-throw line being an all-or-nothing single attempt; the allowance of hand-checking.
Meanwhile, if you’re of the opinion that the modern pro game is too dependent upon 3-pointers, the BIG3 may be your old-school panacea. Despite the league playing up the presence of its trio of 4-point-shot circles (situated 30 feet from the hoop), the majority of gameplay is actually dominated by players going 1-on-1 and then firing up midrange attempts.
There’s some weird non-gameplay stuff too, of course — like say, coach Charles Oakley decked out in his finest T-shirt and shorts; players being interviewed on-court during timeouts; the curtains covering all of the upper-bowl seats; and the sheer amount of salt-and-pepper facial hair among the players.
The thing is, though, those are all minor quibbles. Once you’re able to get over the weirdness of it all, the BIG3 is actually a lot of fun.
The league does what it can to make it all feel like an event.
Player — and coach — introductions involved a smoke machine, laser lights, pounding bass beats, airhorn effects and a hype man reciting everyone’s résumés and career highlights. As the league co-founder was heading for his courtside seat, the crowd was implored to “Show some love … for Ice Cuuuuuuube!” A mix of modern and old-school hip-hop tunes were constantly playing during the game, and player highlights were shown on the jumbotron during timeouts.
Not every bit of entertainment turned out to be entertaining. The first minute-long 4-point contest of contestants plucked from the crowd featured multiple participants whose heaves routinely came up several feet short before the third guy earned himself a Benjamin Franklin by finally sinking a shot with 8 seconds left. Meanwhile, “The BIG3 Dunkers” trampoline group looked shockingly (“shockingly” being a euphemism here for “exactly”) like the Utah Jazz Dunk Team.
In the end, though, despite all of that peripheral stuff going on, BIG3 is ultimately about the basketball. And that was usually entertaining enough.
While the gimmicks are perhaps necessary to keep the energy up for, say, a 3’s Company vs. Killer 3’s matchup largely influenced by the likes of Andre Emmett and C.J. Watson, that wasn’t the case as the night went on.
It surely helped that Game 2, between Ball Hogs and Triplets, featured a trio of former Utah Jazz players in DeShawn Stevenson, Al Jefferson and — most importantly — Joe Johnson.
“Iso Joe” has become the BIG3’s most transcendent star, ranking among the league leaders in all the major categories. On Saturday night, he had 16 of his team’s 26 points by halftime, and he finished with a line 21 points, four steals, two rebounds, two assists, three 3-pointers and one crowd-pleasing 4-pointer. Big Al added 12 points and seven boards for the victors. Stevenson had 12 points and six rebounds for the still-winless Ball Hogs.
After their team wrapped up the 51-34 win, Johnson and Jefferson joined new teammate Jamario Moon and coach Lisa Leslie in the impromptu interview room set up in the Viv’s Media Center to discuss the juxtaposition of absolutely trying to dominate a low-stakes league and have fun doing it.
“It’s fun for me. Obviously, we play once-a-week, halfcourt basketball. I could do that in my sleep,” Johnson said with a laugh. “I look forward to every city we go to, getting a chance to build camaraderie with these guys — just learning one another, and continuing to play hard each and every weekend, and giving these fans a show. And not only that, we in it to win it.”
Jefferson, asked what it was like to be back playing in front of a Salt Lake City crowd, said the thousands who showed up to check out the third-year league for the very first time made him feel right at home again.
“Well, I mean,” Jefferson started, before jumping back, startled at the unexpected volume emanating from the microphone in front of him, before laughing and continuing on, “there’s always a great crowd here. I used to hate coming here when I was on other teams. But when I got a chance to play here and play for these fans, they were always the sixth man — the best sixth man in the league. So to come back today and see that same energy here, it’s always great.”
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