LaVar Ball, who has become one of sports’ most polarizing figures of late, is attempting to backtrack from comments about white UCLA teammates of his son.
In maybe the most viable case of a sports parent making themselves bigger than their kid, LaVar Ball is back at it again. Now, the dad of former UCLA basketball star and future NBA lottery pick Lonzo is trying to clarify comments he made recently regarding some of his son’s former Bruins teammates who are white.
Ball made comments on Thursday in which he said that the Bruins, who lost in the Sweet 16 round to Kentucky to end their season (and some brackets), couldn’t win a national title because they started three white guys with slow foot speed.
On Friday, LaVar Ball once again never met a microphone he couldn’t step away from and spoke to 710 AM ESPN Radio in Los Angeles and said that he had nothing personal against TJ Leaf, Thomas Welsh and Bryce Alford (h/t ESPN.com):
"“I love Bryce because he’s Alford’s son and he’s always been nice to me. TJ Leaf — Zo’s friend, always nice and respectful. Thomas Welsh — one of their most intelligent players, very nice, respectful.“But like I said, they’re going to do their thing and we’re going to do our thing. So don’t wear your feelings on your sleeve and think it’s a direct punch at you guys, because it’s not.”"
Ahhhh … see, LaVar Ball likes white players! It’s everyone else’s fault for literally listening to the exact words that came out of his mouth.
Perhaps even the most telling thing during the radio interview was when Ball said that he does blame one person every single time the Bruins lost this season — while putting in his nomination for Father of the Year:
"“It’s my son. He’s at the head of the front and I blame him regardless if he had 30 points and 20 assists. It doesn’t matter. It’s already been said. Like he said, he didn’t make enough plays for his team to win.”"
LaVar Ball has made it very clear that he doesn’t give much of a damn what you think about him or what he has to say. His latest comments just show that he has an opinion and it’s not going to be bottled up inside — whether that’s always a good thing or not has yet to be decided.
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One might hope, for Lonzo Ball’s sake, that he ends up getting drafted by a team all the way on the East Coast (hello, Brooklyn) so that he doesn’t have to be around LaVar as much at the pro level. Of course, at this rate, it seems that laryngitis is the only thing that will stop him.