BIG3 Basketball Slammed With Lawsuit By Ex Attorney For Unpaid Legal Services

Ice Cube's BIG3 basketball league's former attorney, Lawrence C. Hinkle II, is suing it for breach of contract.

According to legal documents obtained by The Blast, the plaintiff accused the Hip-hop star's organization of repeatedly failing to pay for his legal services. He also slammed them with a Quantum Meruit complaint, asking for reasonable compensation for his work.

In the documents, Hinkle explained that Ice Cube had scouted him in May 2022 at the draft for BIG3's 2022 season.

He was hired to provide legal services for the basketball league, which allegedly agreed to pay him $700 per hour with an advancement of $10,000.

Hinkle noted he received the advanced payment for his services in early June and was promised that the principal balance of $21,690 for his services in July would be paid by August 5. However, this became the starting point of his unpaid wages.

From September 2022 to May 2024, Hinkle claimed he repeatedly contacted BIG3 representatives for his money until he was forced to file a breach of contract lawsuit.

He claimed the organization's reps acknowledged they owed him money for his services and assured him that he would be paid. However, BIG3 refused to pay him even after alerting its CEO and co-founder, Ice Cube, of the situation.

When Hinkle alerted Ice Cube of his due wages, the "Straight Outta Compton" rapper allegedly promised to look into it and get back to him. However, the lawsuit claimed he ignored the plaintiff's numerous follow-up emails.

Meanwhile, BIG3 representatives kept stringing Hinkle along by claiming he wasn't getting paid because of "financial difficulties." Despite this claim, the basketball league spent money outside the lawyer's owed fees and made a bold move last month.

Hinkle highlighted that BIG3 wasn't financially constrained because Ice Cube publicly announced the basketball league had offered college athlete Caitlin Clark $5,000,000 to join them.

The rapper also claimed the organization sold one of its teams for $10,000,000, which begged the question, "Why then has BIG3 refused to pay Mr. Hinkle?"

The plaintiff argued that Ice Cube once declared the basketball league was all about supporting Black people, yet it discriminated against an African-American lawyer.

According to the documents, BIG3 co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz alleged that Hinkle was deliberately not getting paid for his services. The entertainment executive accused the lawyer of malpractice while working for the basketball league.

Although Kwatinetz did not specify the alleged malpractice, he threatened to sue Hinkle because BIG3 lost millions of dollars in damages. However, the attorney argued that he completed his work in July 2022, yet no one had informed him of issues with his legal services.

Instead, Hinkle alleged that he only received thanks and praises for his work until Kwatinetz's malpractice claim in March 2024. The lawyer plans to prove his innocence in court and requested a jury trial alongside $25,000 in damages.

As stated, he asked for Quantum Meruit, claiming that BIG3 had not paid him a fair and reasonable value for his legal services. He asked the Court to grant him compensation for his value according to proof.

As highlighted in Hinkle's lawsuit, BIG3 offered a whopping sum of $5,000,000 to NCAA star Caitlin Clark to join the basketball league. The Blast reported that Ice Cube confirmed the bold move on Instagram with a powerful statement.

The rapper noted that he didn't plan on publicizing Clark's offer but was forced to address it since the news broke. "BIG3 made a historic offer to Caitlin Clark. Why wouldn't we? Caitlin is a generational athlete who can achieve tremendous success in the BIG3," he declared, adding:

"The skeptics laughed when we made Nancy Lieberman the first female coach of a men's pro team, and she won the championship in her first year. Then Lisa Leslie won it all in year two. With our offer, Caitlin Clark can make history and break down even more barriers for women athletes."

In his statement, Ice Cube stressed that he was all for supporting female athletes and noted that these basketball players shouldn't be playing in foreign countries off-season.

"America's women athletes should not be forced to spend their off seasons playing in often dismal and dubious foreign countries just to make ends meet," he argued, noting that they should have more than just one professional option in the US.

"Our pathbreaking offer to Caitlin Clark demonstrates that BIG3 now offers another choice for athletes," Ice Cube concluded. His words received positive responses from fans, with many applauding his goal to help basketball players.