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After Shams Charania of The Athletic reported Wednesday that Colin Kaepernick invested in Ice Cub’s BIG3 league, a 3-on-3 basketball competition, his reps are saying this is inaccurate.
“It’s just not true,” a representative for Kaepernick told The Athletic Thursday.
According to the original report, Kaepernick’s alleged investment would have potentially saved the league from shutting down. As of Thursday, multiple players with the BIG3 league had been preparing for a potential shutdown, per The Athletic.
The BIG3 was founded by rapper and actor Ice Cube along with former entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz in 2017. The league features several former NBA players, some who have continued their playing careers and some as coaches. After the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league restarted in ’21.
Kaepernick is still trying to make a push for a return to the NFL after he most recently worked out for the Raiders in May. He last played for the 49ers and was eventually released at the end of the 2016 season. He was never signed by a team in free agency after he made waves in the NFL for kneeling during the national anthem before games to protest police brutality and institutionalized racism in America.
He believed he was never signed by an NFL team because of his peaceful protests and the political attention that his kneeling brought. He filed a grievance with the NFL in 2017, accusing league owners of colluding to blackball him, and he eventually reached a confidential settlement with the league.
