The National Basketball Association (NBA) is getting in bed with Qatar while freezing out Ice Cube and his ‘BIG3’ basketball league, despite the efforts of league Commissioner Adam Silver to present the NBA as an organization which stands for black empowerment, and yet has zero black owners.

The NBA, comprised of mostly black players, has long prevented NBA owners from investing in “competing leagues” like BIG3. And while Ice Cube’s black-owned business insists it is not a direct competitor to the NBA due to its differing season and three-on-three format, the rapper, actor, and film producer is accusing Silver of trying to crush his competition while denying opportunities to players and coaches.

Amid falling viewership, Commissioner Silver now wants to make an exception to their competing leagues rule to grab cash from the state-linked Qatari Investment Authority.

The special treatment has encouraged many to suspect Silver’s antipathy to BIG3 was not rooted in any business principle, but perhaps in the establishment’s antipathy towards Ice Cube, who refused to take COVID-19 vaccines, and who disparaged mainstream politicians on both the right and the left in a recent appearance with Tucker Carlson.

The prospect of huge transfers of Qatari money was able to overcome whatever principles Silver claimed he was relying on before now, but his decision to partner with the Arab oil state is all the more questionable given it proved to be a poor partner for BIG3.

Discussing Silver and the NBA’s woke credentials with Carlson, Ice Cube said they were “pretty full of shit when the rubber meets the road.”

Ep. 10 Stay in your lane: our drive through South Central LA with Ice Cube.

(next episode: Ice Cube sits down with us at his studio) pic.twitter.com/cUgCh2xccH

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) July 25, 2023