Clyde Drexler on 3-on-3 Basketball Heading to Olympics
*By Max Godnick*
Twenty-three years after winning an NBA championship, Clyde Drexler is changing the game.
The Basketball Hall of Famer is now the commissioner and president of The BIG3, a professional three-on-three league composed entirely of former NBA players. In just its sophomore season, the league is already airing games in every TV market in the U.S. and drawing an average attendance of over 11,500 people across 10 cities ー bigger crowds than most college basketball games.
"We're changing the game and The BIG3 is here to stay," Drexler said Thursday in an interview on Cheddar.
The BIG3 is breaking boundaries and reaching milestones that still seem out of bounds for more established leagues like the NBA or NFL. This week, Nancy Lieberman, the head coach of the team Power, was named Coach of the Year. None of the country's four largest professional leagues have yet hired a female coach.
"Women are capable. It just depends on can they do the job or not," Drexler said. "Hopefully that will follow suit in every sporting league."
The BIG3 this year also became the first professional sports league to permit the use of CBD for athletes' pain management and recovery. Cannabidiol is a naturally occurring chemical compound in cannabis that doesn't cause the psychoactive effects ー the "high" ー commonly associated with marijuana.
"They are using it, and some of them love it," Drexler said of The BIG3's athletes. "It's a good alternative, and you can't turn down good, healthy, natural alternatives when it comes to pain."
Kobe Bryant's representatives [shot down rumors](http://www.nba.com/article/2018/08/21/kobe-bryant-wont-play-big3-league-next-year) this week that the superstar is considering joining The BIG3 next year. But the league already counts plenty of NBA All-Stars, including Baron Davis, Amar'e Stoudemire, and Kenyon Martin, among its ranks. And Drexler plans to court others.
"\[We want\] Tim Duncan, we want Paul Pierce, we want Ray Allen, we want a bunch of guys other than Kobe," he said. "You've got to play somewhere, so why not come play with us?"
In the last decade, critics have slammed the NBA for distributing superstar power unevenly on their rosters. If some of The BIG3's teams were active years earlier, they might be considered superteams, too.
But Drexler, who played on a Houston Rockets team alongside fellow stars Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon, isn't here for the hand-wringing.
"The superteams are the teams that make good decisions," he said.
Drexler's advice to those just trying to keep up?
"Get better players."
For full interview [click here] (https://cheddar.com/videos/clyde-drexler-on-the-big3s-big-year).
John Bencich, CEO of Achieve Life Sciences, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss a new plant-based compound that's being used to fight nicotine addiction.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: CEO of Achieve Life Sciences discusses a new plant-based compound that's being used to fight nicotine addiction; President & CEO OF DiaMedica Therapeutics explains a new ischemic stroke treatment option that expands the window for effective therapy for stroke patients; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Asteroid Rush.'
Catching you up on today's entertainment headlines with the Tribeca Film Festival has kicked off in NYC, "Black Adam," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson dropped its first full trailer, the musical "Come From Away" based on a true story set during 9/11 will be closing on Broadway this October, and more.
Survivors of Larry Nassar, including Olympian Simone Biles, are seeking $1 billion in damages from the FBI due to its failure to investigate the former gymnastics team doctor convicted of committing years of serial sexual abuse of minors. Jack Queen, a senior reporter at Law360, joined Cheddar News to break down the legal grounds of this case. "This is one of the biggest black eyes that the Bureau has faced in generations, quite frankly, and the FBI has taken full responsibility and admitted that it completely botched this investigation," he said. "So, there's a lot of pressure to settle."
The Elevate Prize Foundation is donating $10,000 to different grassroots organizations based on a theme every month to help scale their work, focusing on a different theme each time. Upcoming prizes will help uplift an organization supporting the LGBTQ community and one mobilizing to help end gun violence. The foundation's CEO Carolina Garcia Jayaram joined Cheddar to discuss the initiative and why it's important to uplift these grassroots organizations. "We are identifying social entrepreneurs around the world to help them scale their work. but the ultimate purpose of that is to create the first-ever fanbase for good," she said. "We're trying to make good famous and by inspiring people to think about the role they can play in doing good in the world."
With real estate being a largely male-dominated industry, Stephanie Shojaee, vice president and chief marketing officer at development company Shoma Group, joined Cheddar News to discuss how she took on the gender gap for women to achieve leadership roles, starting at her own company. “It's been very important to teach all the women that work here, especially the younger ones, that they shouldn't change themselves," she said. "You need to be happy with who you are and just keep breaking barriers."
We are already starting to feel the effects of summer. Heat waves in Texas and California are already sending temperatures soaring. That could spell trouble for the nation's power supply. there are new concerns about outages in many areas of the country. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier explains the two main causes of blackouts, and what states are doing to keep the lights on and the air conditioning running.
If you have been on the road this past year, you've probably seen more accidents on the road than you ever have. You're not wrong. Traffic fatalities are not only increasing they are hitting historic highs. Almost 43,000 people died in motor vehicle accidents in 2021. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier investigates - and finds out why.
U.S. stocks close Tuesday at session highs after a subpar start to the trading day. Tim Chubb, Chief Investment Officer at the wealth advisory firm, Girard, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. 'We're starting to see the moderation of three core things -- we've seen the moderation of prices, we've seen the moderation of wage growth we've seen in the labor market, and we've also seen a moderation of job openings,' he says.
The victims from the USA gymnastics sexual abuse scandal continue to seek justice. Survivors of Larry Nassar are seeking more than one-billion dollars from the FBI for failing to stop the convicted sports doctor when the agency first received allegations. According to a report released by the Justice Department's Inspector General, FBI agents knew
in July of 2015 that Nassar was accused of abusing gymnasts; however, Nassar wasn't arrested until December of 2016. The group that filed the claim includes Olympic medalist Simone Biles and around 90 other women. Louise Radnofsky, sports reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
