Ice Cube: Sponsorship interest in Caitlin Clark on different level, won't allow for $5 million offer from Big3 to Angel Reese

Ice Cube famously made an offer of $5 million to Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark to play in the Big3, the three-on-three basketball league he co-founded. However, when asked recently whether he would be willing to extend that same offer to Angel Reese from the Big3, he hesitated.

Ice Cube explained that he was comfortable to offering that number to Clark because of the financial backing he got from league sponsors. He told TMZ that he did not hear the same thing regarding Reese, so he wasn’t sure he could extend the same amount.

“She’s a great player,” the rapper and Big3 co-founder said of Reese. “The thing with Caitlin Clark, it was just to unlock millions of dollars for the league because of her stardom, what our sponsors was telling us. They didn’t tell us the same thing about Angel Reese. So I don’t know if we can make that same offer.”

The BIG3’s $5M offer to #CaitlinClark won’t be moving forward — and while #IceCube has nothing against #AngelReese, he says a similar offer isn’t likely simply because sponsor interest just didn’t line up the same way. pic.twitter.com/nyJggdRju8

— TMZ Sports (@TMZ_Sports) July 27, 2025

The reporter followed up to ask whether Ice Cube would be willing to offer a lower amount to Angel Reese than the $5 million he offered Caitlin Clark for her to play in the Big3. However, he didn’t offer a direct answer to that question, instead reiterating his previous point.

“I don’t think we can make that same offer because it won’t have the same impact to the league,” Ice Cube said.

Of course, Clark never took the Big 3 up on its offer, instead deciding to focus on the WNBA. She was named Rookie of the Year for the 2024 season after averaging 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game.

Reese also had a big rookie year with the Chicago Sky to average 13.6 points and 13.1 rebounds per game. She’s elevated her game in her second season both as a distributor and scorer, increasing her assist total and field goal percentage significantly through 22 games.

It’s worth noting that Reese also competed in another three-on-three basketball league, Unrivaled, during the WNBA offseason. So she might not be interested in playing for the Big3 anyway.

The $5 million offer extended to Clark would have been more than 50 times greater than her rookie year salary of $76,535. However, she chose to bank on the WNBA continuing to grow and salaries to eventually rise.

It turned out to be true, as the league delivered the most-watched season in its history with 54 million unique viewers across ABC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ION and NBA TV. It also set a single-game attendance record of 20,711 for a Sept. 19 game between the Fever and Washington Mystics.

The WNBA is in the process of negotiating its collective bargaining agreement ahead of next season with higher salaries one of the top priorities for players. If they get what they believe they deserve, it will only make Clark’s decision to turn down the Big3 look better.