Keith Dunlap
| Special to The Detroit News
The Amplifiers, Detroit’s new team in BIG3 basketball
The Detroit Amplifiers were introduced at the Born in Detroit store on Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Tuesday, June 10, 2025.
Detroit — Joe Johnson said it has come “full-circle” in regards to playing professional basketball in Detroit nearly a quarter-century later.
A 17-year NBA veteran and seven-time All-Star, the now 43-year-old Johnson knows how close he came to being drafted in 2001 by the Pistons, who took Rodney White one pick ahead of Johnson at No. 9 overall. Johnson was taken No. 10 by Boston.
“I was one pick away from being a Piston,” said Johnson, who technically was a member of the Pistons for a brief period in 2019, but was waived before he appeared in a game. “I’m not holding anything against y’all. It feels great for everything to come back full-circle, to be a part of the Detroit community and bring championship basketball back to Detroit.”
Johnson hopes to do that as a member of the Detroit Amplifiers, the newest team in town that will compete this summer in Ice Cube’s BIG3 basketball league.
The team is coached by Detroit native and NBA Hall of Famer George (Ice Man) Gervin, who along with the players and other organizational members were on hand Tuesday afternoon for an introductory press conference at Born in Detroit, a store located on Woodward Avenue.
Gervin and his five-man roster have already started training camp in preparation for the season debut on Saturday in Chicago.
Gervin believes the 3-on-3 league can present something today’s NBA doesn’t.
“We play a little bit more physical a game than the NBA today,” Gervin said. “The NBA today in the playoffs got a little big rougher. I think that’s what fans want to see. I think fans want to see more hands on guys and a little more pushing. Not fighting or being disrespectful, but being a little more physical.”
There will be a 10-week season, where each of the BIG3’s eight franchises will host an event in their city on one day.
Detroit’s turn to host will come on July 20 at Little Caesars Arena during the league’s fifth week of the season.
Games involving all eight teams are played in one day on those scheduled dates.
The July 20 date is actually great fortune for the franchise, given the Tigers will be on the road and Detroit FC isn’t playing that day, so the Amplifiers will be the only show in town.
“Luck of the draw,” said Anthony Tomey, owner of Born in Detroit who is part of the team’s ownership group. “It changed about three times. We landed on that date. We were happy with it. It’s not late in the season, it’s not early. We get to see a couple of games, experience those games and bring anything extra we didn’t think about home. We have four games before us, so I think it’s a really good deal for us.”
Another member of the ownership group is former Lions and Eastern Michigan offensive lineman TJ Lang.
Besides Johnson, a three-time league MVP, the other members of the Detroit roster are:
▶ Darnell Jackson, 6-9 — The 39-year-old was on Kansas’ 2008 NCAA title team. He played 138 career NBA games with Cleveland, Milwaukee and Sacramento and is an assistant coach with the San Diego Clippers, the G-League affiliate of the L.A. Clippers.
▶ Shakur Juiston, 6-7 — The 29-year-old played his college ball at UNLV and Oregon and spent his entire professional career overseas, including this past season in Greece.
▶ Ray Nixon, 6-7 — Now 40, Nixon played in college for Wisconsin from 2002-06. After a lengthy career playing in Europe, he has been a part of the Big3 since 2022.
▶ Jeremy Pargo, 6-2 — The captain of the team, Pargo played at Gonzaga from 2005-09. He was undrafted out of college but did enough in Europe to earn a chance in the NBA, where he played 83 career games for Memphis, Cleveland and Philadelphia.
The other franchise members are the LA Riot, Miami 305, Houston Rig Hands, DMV Trilogy, Boston Ball Hogs, and Dallas Power.
Keith Dunlap is a freelance writer.