Ice Cube has offered Caitlin Clark five million dollars to play in his three-on-three basketball league, a number more than three times bigger than the WNBA’s salary cap on individual teams. The league (BIG3), for those unfamiliar (this includes me), has twelve teams and plays a ten-game schedule. It’s been around since 2017. Nick Young, more commonly known as Swaggy P, was on the championship winners last year, the Triplets, coached by Lisa Leslie. Clark would be the first woman in the league. It wouldn’t interfere with her WNBA schedule.
There’s an instinct here to say, “How the hell can Ice Cube pay Caitlin Clark five million dollars for ten games while the WNBA can only pay a third of that for 36 games to Caitlin Clark’s whole team,” but this actually makes a lot of sense. The WNBA has made a lot of mistakes throughout the years, but Clark would be more valuable in the BIG3 even if the WNBA was doing everything right. Watching Caitlin Clark torch other women is fun, but watching her play three-on-three basketball against NBA washouts sounds exhilarating. We know what to expect when Clark plays against women. We even knew roughly what to expect when Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu shot threes against one another (a lot of made threes). What would it look like for Clark to play three-on-three against Swaggy P? I have no idea. I’m curious.
The pay per player per game in the WNBA, for teams hitting the salary cap, is $3,387.04. The pay for Clark per game in the BIG3 would be $500,000. Am I 147.6 times more interested in watching Clark play Swaggy P than I am in watching Clark play against the WNBA? I’m sorry, but yes.
The whole thing adds up.
Moonshine
So this is awesome. From the recently resurrected North Wilkesboro Speedway:
For decades, rumors have circulated that historic North Wilkesboro Speedway was the site of a secret moonshine still. Now some Wilkes County locals may have more reason to say ‘I told you so,’ as a possible moonshine cave has been discovered underneath the concrete frontstretch grandstands.
Every business should have this reaction to discovering potential alcoholic contraband on their property. Put out a triumphant release. This is the sort of reaction could have bought Diddy and Syracuse’s old fifth-string point guard that much more time.
The story here is that after sitting mostly unattended for 28 years, North Wilkesboro Speedway began undergoing renovations in 2022. Last year, it hosted NASCAR’s All-Star Race. It will host it again this May.
Evidently, while investigating cracks in the concrete grandstand the other day, staff came across this cave beneath the seats. It might be nothing, but it sure would have been a good spot to store illegally manufactured liquor.
NASCAR’s roots are famously intertwined with moonshine. The whole thing started with moonshiners souping up their cars to outrun the cops, then racing those cars against one another because they were drunk guys who likeed cars. You’d hope, then, that all older speedways have this going on. Richmond. Martinsville. Darlington. North Wilkesboro. This is how NASCAR should be. Old, with cracking concrete revealing moonshine caves beneath it.
The Sports Calendar Is Perfect
Four of the twelve NHL games last night went to overtime, and two more were decided by one goal. It was evidently an electric night of hockey for those not NIT-inclined. It was also a sign of the seasons: The Stanley Cup Playoffs are only 24 days away.
The natural rhythm of the sporting calendar is a beautiful thing. College football in the autumn. The NFL in the early winter months. College basketball after the Super Bowl ends. The NBA and NHL playoffs in the spring, with the College World Series providing an epilogue. Then, a short reprieve for the All-Star Break, and Major League Baseball ratchets up. All of this is speckled with appearances by golf, tennis, soccer, and motorsports. Adam Smith described economic activity as a natural phenomenon. Nature’s systems are intricate and wonderful. All these sports settling into their most advantageous spots is no different.
(This is especially true in the spring and I will get angry in September and October when people aren’t paying enough attention to baseball.)
Ticket Talk
We aren’t there yet, but there’s a chance that over the next few days, NIT Final Four ticket prices on resale markets might eclipse those of the NCAA T*urnament. This will of course not actually indicate higher interest in attending the NIT—the NCAA To*rnament’s Final Four is played in a football stadium, because it has to draft off of other sports to get its shine—but we will bang the drum loudly anyway. The cheapest NIT Final Four ticket on SeatGeek is up from somewhere around $45 last night to $79 right now. By that pace, we might pass the other tournament on Saturday, shortly before fans of individual teams learn they’ve been condemned to a weekend in Phoenix. Or! Maybe Clemson makes the other Final Four, and nobody wants to watch them, and the prices for that one plummet? I suppose we have a few routes here to narrative success.
We will, of course, be monitoring this situation.
