• Celebrity
    • Of The Essence
    • Celebrity News
    • If Not For My Girls
    • The State Of R&B
    • Time Of Essence
  • Fashion
    • 2023 Best In Black Fashion Awards
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • Red Carpet
    • Fashion News
    • Accessories
  • Beauty
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
    • 2023 Best In Black Beauty
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Hair
  • Lifestyle
    • Love
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
    • Bridal Bliss
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Money & Career
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Shopping
  • Video
  • Events
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
  • Studios
  • Girls United

WHERE BLACK CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS MEET

Sign up for ESSENCE Newsletters the keep the Black women at the forefront of conversation.

Your email is required.
Your email is in invalid format.
Confirm email is required.
Email did not match.
Select the newsletters you'd like to receive:
Please select at least one option.
By clicking Subscribe Now, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Skip to content
SUBSCRIBE
  • MAGAZINE
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Celebrity
    • Of The Essence
    • Celebrity News
    • If Not For My Girls
    • The State Of R&B
    • Time Of Essence
  • Fashion
    • 2023 Best In Black Fashion Awards
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • Red Carpet
    • Fashion News
    • Accessories
  • Beauty
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
    • 2023 Best In Black Beauty
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Hair
      • Hair News
      • Natural
      • Relaxed
      • Transitioning
      • Weave
      • 4C
  • Lifestyle
    • Love
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
    • Bridal Bliss
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
  • Entrepreneurship
    • Money & Career
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Shopping
  • Video
  • Events
    • 2023 Fashion House
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
  • Studios
  • Girls United
In The Big 3, Women Also Call The Shots
By Imani Bashir · Updated October 14, 2019
Home · Sports

In The Big 3, Women Also Call The Shots

By Imani Bashir·Updated October 14, 2019
This pro sports league has shown the world what gender equality can look like when your focus is not on gender.

Navigating professional sports for women has always been met with the unwarranted questions of if we are up to the skill and work ethic of our male counterparts. From the U.S. women’s soccer team to the WNBA, the fight for equal pay is also at the forefront of the conversation of why women are not given the same opportunities even when proven that we can perform and excel at exceptional levels. 

According to CNBC, WNBA superstar players only earn 20% of an NBA player’s minimum salary. Similarly, women of the U.S. soccer team have not only strongly expressed the gender pay gap in their respective sport, but are currently wrapped in a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation as a result. Even in the realm of coaching, there are still more male head coaches than there are women, including coaching women’s sports. 

But, one league has set out to raise the standard of gender equality in the professional sports arena and “change the game”. Ice Cube’s Big 3 basketball league includes 12 teams led by a legendary coaching staff that includes WNBA greats Nancy Lieberman and Lisa Leslie. Lieberman, a Hall-Of-Fame former pro-basketball player, broadcaster, and one of the greatest women in American sports is the head coach of The Big 3’s “Power” team. Known as “Lady Magic” as a nod to Ervin “Magic” Johnson, Lieberman was the first woman to ever coach a men’s pro-basketball team in the NBA Developmental League and also one of only nine women to assistant coach in the NBA.  

Ice Cube told CBS Sports that he’s about hiring the best possible person for the job, no matter the gender. “It doesn’t take men to coach men. Women can coach men just like men can coach women.” 

Lieberman declared just how strongly she believed in the sincerity of Ice Cube and co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz choice in adding her as a part of this organization. 

“People always talk about inclusion and diversity, but let’s do something about it,” Nancy told ESSENCE. “Diversity is inviting me to the party. Inclusion is inviting me to dance. Ice Cube invited me to dance,” she continued. 

In The Big 3, Women Also Call The Shots
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 01: Head coach Lisa Leslie of the Triplets is awarded the Coach of the Year trophy by BIG3 commissioner Clyde Drexler (R) during the BIG3 Championship at Staples Center on September 01, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/BIG3 via Getty Images)

As Lieberman spoke of the league’s Commissioner, former NBA great Clyde Drexler, calling to extend a welcome to her as a head coach in the league, the immediate thought was placed into how she would be compensated in comparison to the male coaches. But, without hesitation, she filled the gap and quickly dismantled any doubt if this league was really about changing the structure of how we see men and women working hand-in-hand in professional sports.

“They told me, ‘you will make whatever the men make’. No negotiation. It was offered. I don’t know any league that has ever done that,” Lieberman affirmed.

In The Big 3, Women Also Call The Shots
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – AUGUST 25: Triplets head coach Lisa Leslie reacts during the BIG3 Playoffs at Smoothie King Center on August 25, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Replacing Clyde Drexler as the Power’s head coach, Lieberman not only led the team to a victorious championship season in 2018 but was also voted Coach of the Year–an honor bestowed through votes from all of the players and coaches within the league. 

It was in that same season that supporting the league as a spectator, Lisa Leslie found herself coaching from the sideline due to how exciting and entertaining she found the games to be. This ultimately led The Big 3’s Chairman of the Board, the former NFL Oakland Raiders CEO, and fellow panelist of the first-ever all women’s sports talk show “We Need to Talk”, Amy Trask, to extend a head coaching opportunity to Leslie. 

Leslie, a four-time Olympic gold-medalist, former WNBA league MVP, and soon-to-be first-ever female athlete to have a statue in front of the Staples Center arena in Los Angeles, was beyond an obvious choice for The Big 3. 

“When Amy told me that Ice Cube wanted to talk to me about the league I said, ‘Great! Let me know if you need someone to do broadcasting’.” Leslie laughed as she continued explaining that she thought they were interested in her for commentary, but when the idea of coaching became apparent, it awakened a different skill set for her to tap into. 

“Yea, I played ball, but I don’t want to be in a box. I love Ice Cube because he saw that in me. We believed and worked together,” Leslie continued. 

This belief was the perfect fit for The Big 3’s Triplet’s squad who Leslie led to a first championship this past 2019 season and also bestowed her the Coach of the Year award. With her leadership, former Captain for the team, Joe Johnson was scouted and recruited for another shot at playing in the NBA. 

“As a Black woman, we are always trying to find our place and our space so I have to show up better. I have to show up prepared. I have to believe that there ain’t nobody that’s going to be better than me. Smarter than me. And with all of this, people are still asking, `How did you do it?”

With The Big 3 providing a much-needed blueprint that can extend beyond sports, there is no doubt that when women show up, not only can they call the shots, but they hit nothing but net.

COMPANY INFORMATION
  • Our Company
  • Customer Service
  • Essence Ventures
  • Change Your Address
  • Contact Us
  • Job Opportunities
  • Internships
  • Media Kit
  • tag
SUBSCRIBE
  • Newsletters
  • Give a Gift of ESSENCE
  • Magazine Tablet Edition
FOLLOW US
MORE ON ESSENCE
  • Home
  • Love
  • Celebrity
  • Beauty
  • Hair
  • Fashion
  • ESSENCE festival

ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc.

Essence may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

©2023 ESSENCE Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Essence.com Advertising Terms

Get The ESSENCE Newsletter and
Special Offers delivered to your inbox

By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Get The ESSENCE Magazine
by subscribing below
subscribe now