Roger Mason Jr. Files Complaint Against BIG3 for Using Him as Scapegoat
Former NBA player and BIG3 commissioner Roger Mason Jr. is taking legal action against the three-on-three basketball league.
According to Rick Maese of the Washington Post, Mason filed a 34-page complaint in a Delaware court on Monday following his March 12 firing as the league's initial commissioner. In addition to saying the league's co-founders, Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz, blamed him for their own misdoings, Mason is seeking more than $100 million for defamation and breach of contract.
"Kwatinetz sought to make Mason the scapegoat for his own wrongdoing, outrageously blaming Mason for jeopardizing the league's financial success and ability to enter into professional relationships," the filing read, via Maese.
This comes after TMZ Sports reported last week that Ice Cube and Kwatinetz were suing Qatari investors for not upholding their financial commitments to the BIG3. The co-CEOs of the league sought $1.2 billion in damages with the lawsuit.
Maese noted, "Cube and Kwatinetz say that Mason is the one who introduced the BiG3 to Sport Trinity, which included three Qatari investors." While the BIG3 says it held an independent investigation to determine employees' relationship with the investors and ultimately fired Mason, Monday's complaint called it a "sham" and pointed to the prior relationship between Kwatinetz and the investigator.
What's more, Maese wrote, "the complaint repeats secondhand claims Mason made publicly immediately following his dismissal that Kwatinetz was heard by others to have made racist remarks, including calling the players 'rich n----rs and the Qatari investors as 'terrorists.'"
Despite the ongoing legal issues, the BIG3 is entering its second season and announced its 2018 schedule in March.
The season starts June 22 in Houston and will end on Aug. 24 in Brooklyn, New York, where a champion will be determined. Notable players such as Metta World Peace and Baron Davis will join the league's ranks in 2018 after players such as Allen Iverson and Rashard Lewis were involved in the inaugural campaign.
As for Mason, he played for the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks, New Orleans Pelicans and Miami Heat during his NBA career and last appeared in a game during the 2013-14 season for Miami.
