Ice Cube’s BIG3 basketball league faces a proposed class-action lawsuit from NFT buyers, filed by Lou and Sally Sheward in California Superior Court in the summer of 2025 and publicized this week by their attorney. The suit accuses the league of deceptive, fraudulent, and illegal marketing tied to the 2022 sale of Ethereum-based NFTs, sold as unregistered securities under the banner of team ownership.
Ice Cube BIG3 launched its “Ownership NFTs” in May 2022 across two pricing tiers. Fire-tier tokens cost $25,000 each and carried the strongest promised benefits, including IP licensing rights and a collective 40% share of future franchise sale proceeds. Gold-tier tokens sold for $5,000 and came with lighter perks: voting rights, VIP access, and merchandise benefits. Buyers included high-profile names such as Snoop Dogg and Gary Vaynerchuk, both of whom purchased Fire-tier tokens for team ownership stakes.
Attorney Joseph Sakai, representing the plaintiffs, said his clients invested substantial sums based on promises of meaningful ownership rights, covering team management decisions, season tickets, and financial participation in future team sales. Sakai described the plaintiffs as fans of the league rather than opportunists, noting they came to him without any intent to damage BIG3, only frustration over benefits that never arrived.
The lawsuit centers on a 2024 sale of four BIG3 franchises to outside investors for roughly $40 million combined. According to the complaint, Fire-tier holders never received their promised 40% cut of those proceeds. Plaintiffs allege BIG3 sidestepped that obligation through a rebranding maneuver: the league placed the original four franchises on “hiatus” and relaunched them as “expansion” teams under new names, avoiding the contractual link to the NFT payout structure while retaining at least one player from each original roster.
The four rebranded teams now compete as the LA Riot (formerly the Enemies), the Detroit Amps (formerly the Ghost Ballers), the Houston Rig Hands (formerly Bivouac), and Miami 305 (formerly 3’s Company), based on team names listed in the complaint.
The complaint lists 12 causes of action, including fraudulent concealment and breach of contract. Plaintiffs seek damages, restitution, and declaratory relief rather than a shutdown of the league or its NFT program.
Ice Cube said in the press release
“Leading a new generation of emerging sports, BIG3 connects basketball to culture, fans and our team communities. Going public is our next step. This lifts us to a bigger stage, accelerates our international potential, and gives our fans a way to grow with us, support us, and participate in our success.”
BIG3 has pushed back publicly against the suit
A league representative told Front Office Sports that the plaintiffs represent holders of an asset class that lost value due to a broader market collapse, calling the case a nuisance suit brought to extract a settlement rather than a legitimate claim.
The league compel to individual arbitration rather than allow the case to proceed as a class action, citing an arbitration clause embedded in the original 2022 terms of sale. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for August 24, 2026.
Last month, the league announced a merger with Graf Global Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, at a valuation of roughly $290 million. The deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 under ticker symbol TONT, would make BIG3 one of the first professional sports leagues in the U.S. to trade publicly. Ice Cube called the move the league’s next step in a statement tied to the announcement. According to Front Office Sports, the plaintiffs’ attorney plans to amend the lawsuit to account for the SPAC news.
BIG3 has faced legal disputes before
The league previously settled a six-year, $1.2 billion lawsuit against Qatari investment group Sport Trinity in 2024, and fought off a separate $250 million suit from a rival league, the Champions Basketball League. Founded in 2017 by Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz, BIG3 now runs eight city-based teams and features former NBA players including Joe Johnson, Mario Chalmers, and Dwight Howard.
