- LaVar Ball made headlines for all the wrong reasons after Lonzo and UCLA lost to Kentucky in 2017
- Ball said teams with 3 White players can’t win titles
- LaVar has now doubled down on that take
LaVar Ball is no stranger to controversy, but his most controversial comment perhaps came back in 2017. After his son Lonzo Ball’s UCLA lost to Kentucky in the NCAA tournament, LaVar pointed the blame on his White teammates. He was asked about those comments during an interview with Vlad TV, and LaVar isn’t backing down.
“You gotta be,” Ball said when told people were upset over the comments. “I would be too if they told me I can’t win with no Black guys. If that’s my race I’m gonna be mad. But don’t be mad at me because I’m truthful.”
When Vlad brought up that the comments were viewed as racist, Ball felt it depended on how you looked at it. He then stated he has a white wife, so he can’t be racist. The 55-year-old then defended his take by pointing to the NBA.
“Why is NBA 90% Black? How you gonna win a championship (except) for the early ’40s or ’50s when you don’t allow these black folks to do what they do,” Ball continued. “… Back in the day, they wouldn’t allow black folks to play with the white colleges until they said these (Black) guys are super fast. Let me get one, let me get two, let me get three, but it’s just the foot speed, if it’s real, it’s real.”
(starts at 3:35 mark):
As for what was his exact comment back then, Ball stated, “Realistically you can’t win no championship with three white guys because the foot speed is too slow.”
It was thought at the time that Ball was just out of control after Lonzo lost and was just trying to find a way to defend him. It seems pretty clear now that he feels quite strongly on the matter.
Who Were The Three White Guys?
For those wondering who Ball was referring to back then, it’s been generally assumed it was Bryce Alford, TJ Leaf, and Thomas Welsh. They were the three White starters on the team, with the two others being Lonzo and Isaac Hamilton.
Leaf and Alford were actually the two leading scorers on the team, while Welsh was their top rebounder. Neither of these three went on to really make their mark on the professional level, however.
Leaf was selected with the 18th pick of the 2017 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers and played four seasons in the league, after which he headed over to China. He currently plays for the Beijing Ducks in the CBA.
Alford, meanwhile, went undrafted in 2017. He has had a couple of stints in the G League, but last played for Zastal Zielona Gora in the Polish Basketball League.
Lastly, Welsh would be selected with the 58th pick of the 2018 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets. He played just 11 games for the Nuggets and then spent some time in the G League, after which he went abroad. Welsh last played for New Taipei Kings in the Taiwanese League back in the 2021-22 season.
Lonzo Struggled In That Famous Game
UCLA did not lose to Kentucky 86-75 on 25th March 2017 because of those three, however. It was Lonzo who really struggled in what would be his final college game.
Ball had 10 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 blocks, but shot 4-10 from the field and 1-6 from beyond the arc. While those are still decent numbers, the big issue came on the defensive end. Lonzo was torched by De’Aaron Fox, who went off for 39 points to power Kentucky to victory.
We later found out that Ball was dealing with a serious personal matter at the time, as his mother had suffered a stroke in February. LaVar didn’t attend this game as he had to be with his wife, and no one can say for sure just how much the whole situation was impacting Lonzo back then.
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