Report: BIG3 planning quarantined tournament with reality show element

BIG3 founders Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz are hoping to launch a three-on-three tournament with an added reality-show aspect in April that would consist of players within the league who have tested negative for the coronavirus, sources told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.

Between 16 and 22 players would partake in the proposed competition and would be quarantined in a large home in Los Angeles, Haynes reports.

Cameras would also capture players' daily lives within the house; if anyone broke quarantine, they would be automatically eliminated from the tournament and removed from the site, sources told Haynes.

The basketball tournament itself would apparently have seven rounds. Players would be shuffled into different teams following the first round and would be eliminated after suffering three losses.

Ice Cube and Kwatinetz have both reportedly spoken with television networks about broadcasting the competition.

Kwatinetz confirmed to Haynes that the BIG3 hopes to entertain basketball fans with the NBA suspended indefinitely and the NCAA's national tournament canceled amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

"As long as we can protect the players, which we will do through proper testing and quarantine, Ice Cube and I feel we can give fans some safe, entertaining brand of basketball to get everyone through this pandemic," he told Haynes. "Cube and I have been in the entertainment business for 30 years. This is our job.

"People want to be entertained with all we're going through and enjoy our sports. We think this will help."