LaVar Ball is the country's most prominent Sports Dad. This isn't necessarily a good thing.
Ball, the father of UCLA hoops star Lonzo Ball, has repeatedly pushed himself into the news cycle of late with a series of audacious statements. Some greatest hits: My Lonzo will only play for the Lakers.My three sons will sign packaged shoe deal worth $1 billion. And then there's my personal favorite: I could have lit up Michael Jordan in my athletic prime.
If Chuck Barkley thinks you talk too much, it may be time to rein it in a bit.
"Back in my heyday, I would kill Michael Jordan one-on-one," Ball told USA Today this week ahead of the NCAA Tournament where UCLA is the No. 3 seed in the South. "I would just back him in and lift him off the ground and call a foul every time he fouls me when I do a jump hook to the right or the left. He cannot stop me one-on-one. He better make every shot 'cause he can't go around me. He's not fast enough. And he can only make so many shots outside before I make every bucket under the rim."
Can Ball get randomly drug tested by an official Sports Dad commission of some kind? Anyway, Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell wasn't going to let some rando besmirch His Airness.
Ball played collegiately for Washington State and averaged 2.2 points, 2.3 rebounds per game during the 1987-88 season. At the same time Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player in the world. One wonders if Ball's sons would ante up $1 billion to get dad to stop talking.
