LaVar Ball: ‘Slow white guys’ kept UCLA from winning title, Lonzo played hurt in loss
UCLA’s season is done and Lonzo Ball is headed to the pros, but his dad has plenty more to say.
In an interview with the Orange County Register, Ball discussed the Bruins’ tourney exit, heaping the blame on UCLA’s white players for being unathletic and revealing Lonzo apparently had a hamstring injury.
“Realistically you can’t win no championship with three white guys because the foot speed is too slow,” Ball said. “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.”
LaVar Ball repeatedly guaranteed UCLA would win the title this season.
UCLA regularly played three white players this season — Bryce Alford, Thomas Welsh, and projected first-round pick T.J. Leaf. The three scored 39 points combined in UCLA’s 86–75 loss to Kentucky, in which Ball had 10 points, eight assists, four turnovers.
Meanwhile, Kentucky point guard De’Aaron Fox, Ball’s matchup for much of the game, set a scoring record for a freshman in the NCAA tourney, scoring 39 by himself.
“People thought he was giving up, but he popped his hamstring,” LaVar Ball said of Lonzo in the game. “He said ‘I was trying to run, but my hamstring was pulled.’ But he’s never going to make excuses.”
