Allen Iverson did not show up to the BIG3’s Dallas event, which put the 3-on-3 basketball league’s leadership in a precarious position: What do you do when your big-ticket star doesn’t show up?

Apparently you give him another week off. BIG3 commissioner Roger Mason Jr. announced during Wednesday’s weekly teleconference that Iverson was suspended for one week, meaning he will not be in attendance for the regular season’s penultimate weekend in Lexington, Ky. The expectation is that he will be coaching — if not playing — at the regular-season finale in Los Angeles.

If this sounds weird, it absolutely is. But BIG3 founder Ice Cube explained what his conversation with Iverson was like and why he ended up feeling obligated to suspend the Philadelphia 76ers legend from his traveling league of former NBA players.

“Well, we talked about holding up the legitimacy of the league and he knows that him not showing up hurts us,” Ice Cube said. “Who’s happy to be suspended? Nobody. But he understands that it’s a necessary step in the development of the BIG3 who don’t believe what we’re doing and what we’re going to do in the future. Our league is bigger than one man, and we’ve got Hall-of-Famers, champions, All-Stars, first-round picks, and we have to think about them. He understands that.”

BIG3 continued its policy of not revealing any specifics, though Mason did say they’ve disciplined players in the past. The controversy again returns to the league’s desire to be taken seriously as a professional basketball league.

“It does mean that he will not be there,” BIG3 co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz said. “He’s a star, and — of course we want all our players to be there. Things happen in sports, and this isn’t the first sport that had someone suspended or missing a game. What I do know is we saw some of the best basketball of the season last week.”

Ice Cube added, “We don’t want to be a league of nostalgia and not a league of competitive basketball. Just with the names we have, nostalgia comes with it. But getting these guys to play hard is key.”

Iverson also caused a flurry of controversy when he pulled out of playing in Philadelphia only 25 minutes before the opening tipoff, leaving many fans hanging around the arena through three games to wait to see their favorite player. Those fans booed, chanted for Iverson and left early when he didn’t play.

Kwatinetz, a persistent glass-half-full optimist, denies that fans have been upset. “Dallas saw his team play what might have been the most exciting game of the season, so I don’t know who allegedly is upset in Dallas,” he said, referring to Iverson’s 3’s Company team pulling off a 53-49 victory against Power. He also doesn’t expect Iverson’s absence to have a significant effect on ticket sales in Lexington.

Still, there’s no denying the league is in an awkward position — one that seems solvable for next season, assuming the solid ticket sales and TV ratings are enough to bring this league back for another year. Ice Cube already has positioned himself for that by saying he would love to bring BIG3 basketball back to Philadelphia and Dallas as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

He also knows how awkward this situation is: Iverson has been the player face of the league since Day One, and his presence alone attracted many to the league. Week after week, Iverson throwback jerseys are the most popular apparel worn by fans.

“We are thankful and grateful to Allen Iverson for being a part of this league,” Ice Cube said. “A lot of people feel like having him be part of this league really got us over a lot of humps. A lot of players feel like that. … I think people — everybody’s rooting for Allen, the players are rooting for Allen, everybody’s rooting for him to be a part of this league, to play. Everybody understands it’s part of it. Nobody’s looking at it as a distraction. We just look at it as we’re trying to bring great basketball every week.”

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