The NFL is teaming up with Ice Cube - Entrepreneur O'Shea Jackson.

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NFL, Ice Cube team up for economic-equity initiative for Black-owned businesses​

The NFL is teaming up with Ice Cube.The league announced Thursday that it is partnering with Contract with Black America Institute, an economic inclusion-focused initiative led by artist and entrepreneur O'Shea Jackson, who is known as Ice Cube. "We feel like if you tackle the huge wealth gap between Black people and white people in this country, that should solve a lot of problems that's there," Ice Cube said on the AP Pro Football Podcast. "Our thing was to go after some of the biggest companies in the country that rely on Black consumers or Black workers, and the biggest one that we focused in on was the NFL." Ice Cube, his longtime business partner and entertainment lawyer Jeff Kwatinetz, and advisors Ja'Ron Smith and Chris Pilkerton started this initiative in 2020. They worked with Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations, and presented the idea to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Already, the NFL has spent and allocated $125 million with Black owned-and-operated businesses such as Ariel Investments, CityFirst/Broadway Bank, Cover Communications, and Fearless Technology during the last year.

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From hip-hop star to basketball CEO, Ice Cube reinvents 3-on-3​

Hip-hop and movie star Ice Cube co-owns the professional basketball league BIG3. Now in its fifth season, the game has been recognized as an official Olympic sport. The game is unlike the NBA, which is full-court and 5-on-5. BIG3 is half-court, 3-on-3. Ice Cube says that more people around the world play 3-on-3 because of space and infrastructure. “What we've done was taken 3-on-3 and elevated it to the professional level,” he says. With Jeff Kwantinetz, Ice Cube founded the BIG3 league in 2017. He says after they figured out the rules, they wanted to make sure players had more control in the league than players have in the NBA. Unlike the NBA, there are no BIG3 teams that are not rooted in any particular city. Instead, the teams travel from city to city. Ice Cube says that in the era of fantasy sports, people follow players, not teams. He didn’t want fans to be tied to a city, but rather the players.

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