In celebration of Julius “Dr. J” Erving’s prolific basketball career, the BIG3 has named the league’s championship trophy in his honor. Erving, who is coach of the BIG3’s Tri-State, has been part of the league since its inception in 2017. The Julius Erving Championship Trophy will be presented to the 2018 Season Champions at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Friday, Aug. 24. Kenyon Martin and Al Harrington’s Trilogy took the inaugural season’s Championship Trophy and will defend its title when the 2018 BIG3 season gets underway on Friday, June 22 at the Toyota Center in Houston.
“Dr. J is a basketball pioneer whose style of play forever changed the way the game of basketball is played,” said BIG3 co-founder and co-CEO Ice Cube. “As a league that perpetually strives to change the game, it only made sense to name our Championship Trophy for a man who has made a career of doing just that.”
During Erving’s career, he won three championships, four Most Valuable Player awards, and three scoring titles with the ABA’s Virginia Squires, New York Nets (now the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets) and the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. Erving is the sixth-highest scorer in ABA/NBA history with 30,026 points (NBA and ABA combined) and in 1993 he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Erving’s Tri-State will vie for the Julius Erving Championship Trophy with returning players captain Jermaine O’Neal and Bonzi Wells, newly added co-captains Amar’e Stoudemire and Nate Robinson, David Hawkins and Robert Hite. The trophy, crafted by S.R. BLACKINTON, makers of the Kentucky Derby trophy, will be awarded to the 2018 BIG3 champions after the deciding game on Aug. 24.
BIG3’s 10-week season tips off in Houston on June 22 and makes its way to Chicago, Oakland, Detroit, Miami, Toronto, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, and Brooklyn. All stops will feature four back-to-back games on Friday evenings and will be broadcast live on FS1 or Fox this season. Tickets are on sale now starting at $20 and can be purchased at BIG3.com.
2018 BIG3 SEASON SCHEDULE
WEEK 1 | June 22: Toyota Center | Houston, Texas
WEEK 2 | June 29: United Center | Chicago, Illinois
WEEK 3 | July 6: Oracle Arena | Oakland, California
WEEK 4 | July 13: Little Caesars Arena | Detroit, Michigan
WEEK 5 | July 20: American Airlines Arena | Miami, Florida
WEEK 6 | July 27: Air Canada Centre | Toronto, Ontario
WEEK 7 | August 3: TD Garden | Boston, Massachusetts
WEEK 8 | August 10: Infinite Energy Arena | Atlanta, Georgia
WEEK 9 | August 17: American Airlines Center | Dallas, Texas *Playoffs*
WEEK 10 | August 24: Barclays Center | Brooklyn, New York *Championship Finals*
