LaVar Ball, the outspoken father of UCLA star basketball player Lonzo Ball, has an interesting theory on why UCLA couldn’t win the national championship. The theory? His son was hurt, and UCLA had far too many slow white guys on the team to take up the slack.
After revealing on Thursday that his son, Lonzo, had injured his hamstring in the game against Kentucky, according to The Orange County Register, Ball said, “Realistically you can’t win no championship with three white guys because the foot speed is too slow. I told Lonzo – ‘One of these games you might need to go for 30 or 40 points.’ It turned out the that was the one game. Then once they get to the Elite 8, they’re right there.
“People thought he was giving up, but he popped his hamstring,” Lavar Ball said. “He said ‘I was trying to run, but my hamstring was pulled.’ But he’s never going to make excuses.”
Ball told the Southern California News Group, before the season, that UCLA would win a national championship.
The story of Lonzo Ball’s hamstring injury seems shrouded in mystery, considering that, according to ESPN, “Lonzo Ball did not mention the injury after the Sweet 16 loss to Kentucky, and UCLA coach Steve Alford said he believed his player was fine.”
In any event, the white guys weren’t good enough to win, and neither was Lonzo Ball, whether because of injury, or not. However, that shouldn’t distract from the real issue at hand: if the white father of a basketball player had said that a group of black players were too defective, for whatever reason, every commentator at ESPN would nuke LaVar Ball and probably see to it that he not ever appear again on another ESPN platform.
Instead, Ball probably just insured himself an invite back to “First Take.”
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
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