As part of his media tour to promote the BIG 3 League, Ice Cube made it clear he wants the Los Angeles Clippers out of LA.
The Los Angeles Clippers have been in the news the past couple days due to famous rapper turned BIG 3 League founder Ice Cube stating on a couple outlets that the Clippers should leave LA.
Originally, Ice Cub went on ESPN’s First Take and said
"“San Diego man stop giving us the teams you don’t want, we don’t want them either”."
He also slammed the Chargers. He doubled down on his statements on Episode 400 of the Bill Simmons Podcast:
Should the Clippers relocate to Las Vegas or Seattle? @icecube thinks so and explains why on the #BSPodcast.
— The Ringer (@ringer) August 15, 2018
Full pod: https://t.co/ZbJkdGhoiq pic.twitter.com/euLan8MVmF
Ice Cube’s rhetoric is much less combative here than on First Take. His argument is Los Angeles only needs one team and that many other cities would kill for an NBA franchise while the Clippers will always play second fiddle if they stay in LA.
What he is saying is true. The Clippers will never be able to beat the Lakers in popularity. The Lakers are not only one of the greatest franchises in basketball history, but one of all-time greatest franchises in sports history. Only the Celtics can truly be compared to the Lakers.
However, Los Angeles is one of the most important cities in the world. Obviously, the Lakers are always going to be the team that sells more merchandise and has more expensive tickets. The Clippers are still a good franchise located in a destination city. During the cheap era of Donald Sterling, the Clippers were a laughingstock compared to the Lakers. But now, with Steve Ballmer as owner, the Clippers are in a city that players will want to live in, a city where when competitive will get nationally televised games, and a city where second best is better than being the best in 98% of cities.
Ice Cube is also not the most impartial source as he is a notorious Lakers fan. His famous song “It’s a Good Day” mentions the Lakers beating the Supersonics as part of his amazing day. He was also one of the rappers included in creating the “Lakers Anthem” after the team won its title in 2010. At the end of the day, his words can be summed up as that of a Lakers fan opinion.