There is a huge NCAA basketball scandal dominating the sport this week, so it was only a matter of time before LaVar Ball became part of the story.
Ball, who has become America’s most omnipresent basketball dad, revealed this week he’s received illegal offers like the ones detailed by the FBI “every summer” from shoe companies looking to curry favor with him and his three sons.
“Every summer,” Ball told CBS Sports. “They keep coming every summer to get me to say ‘yes.’ They offered you money, they offered to take care of the AAU team, they’re gonna give everybody uniforms, everybody shoes. I mean, it’s just, any kind of way.”
Ball’s oldest son, Lonzo, played last year at UCLA and is now a rookie with the Lakers. The middle son, LiAngelo, will be a freshman at UCLA this season. His youngest son, LaMelo, is going to be a junior in high school this year but is already committed to play for the Bruins.
LaVar Ball’s back-and-forth with the major shoe companies has been well documented. None of them were willing to meet his asking price for a shoe deal with Lonzo, so his company Big Baller Brand produced shoes for Lonzo and now LaMelo on its own. Whether or not the NCAA is going to allow LaMelo to be eligible in two years with his own custom shoe remains to be determined.
It does at least appear, if the father is telling the truth, that UCLA and the youngest two sons do not need to worry about the Ball family becoming part of the current scandal. Ten people, including four NCAA assistant coaches, were arrested Tuesday as part of an FBI sting operation dealing with bribery and fraud in the sport. At least seven schools — Louisville, Miami, South Carolina, Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and UCLA’s crosstown rival USC — could be in trouble with the NCAA in the aftermath of this scandal.
“The word got out that LaVar don’t need that,” LaVar Ball said. “Someone even had a false accusation that said, ‘Oh LaVar asked me for $200,000.’ I was like, ‘Wow, that’s funny.’ What am I gonna do with $200,000? After I’ve bought a car and paid some bills I’m stuck right where I’m at. So $200,000 ain’t gonna do nothing.
“So me and my wife, we got a job, we do our thing. And the way we pay our boys, whatever car they want, we get it. That’s a small price to pay when your kid has a scholarship and you don’t have to save no money for that.”