UCLA freshman Shabazz Muhammad is actually 20 years old, father confirms

UCLA's Shabazz Muhammad is actually 20 years ago, not 19 as listed in the team's media guide. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

As UCLA star forward Shabazz Muhammad prepares for his team's second round matchup against Minnesota in the NCAA tournament, a season filled with controversy for the freshman just got stranger.

Earlier this season, Muhammad missed three games after the NCAA had questions about extra benefits received during unofficial university visits. Now in an article in the Los Angeles Times, Muhammad's father, Ron Holmes, admits that he lied about his son's age.

In the interview, a reporter asked about the discrepancy, as UCLA's media guide says Muhammad was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 13, 1993.

"It must be a mistake," Holmes said, saying that his son is 19 and was born in Nevada.

Holmes later admitted that Muhammad is 20 years old.

A copy of Shabazz Nagee Muhammad's birth certificate on file with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health shows that he was born at Long Beach Memorial Hospital exactly one year earlier, making him 20 years old — not 19 as widely reported.

Holmes doesn't think disclosure of his son's true age and his own criminal record, also reported in the Los Angeles Times article, are newsworthy. He sent the following text message to the reporter.

"Bazz is going to blow up in the NBA lets team up and blow this thing up!!!" Holmes wrote to this reporter. "I'm going to need a publicist anyway why shouldn't it be you. We can do some big things together."