Written by Colin Ward-Henniger at CBSSports.com
With NCAA basketball embroiled in an FBI investigation into corruption, LaVar Ball says that he’s been approached repeatedly with offers that violate NCAA rules.
Ball’s son, Lonzo, played for UCLA last season before entering the NBA Draft, his middle son LiAngelo is currently a Bruin and youngest son LaMelo, a high school junior, is also committed to UCLA.
On the first episode of CBS Sports Flagrant Two, hosts Bill Reiter and Reid Forgrave asked LaVar if he had ever received illegal offers regarding his sons. Ball was quick with his response:
LaVar Ball joined the CBS Sports Flagrant Two podcast
Every summer. 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.
But see the word got out that LaVar don’t need that. 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.
So it appears that the offers were a bit low for LaVar, the founder of Big Baller Brand, which has released signature shoes for both Lonzo and LaMelo.
As coaches continue to be fired in college hoops, the evidence suggests that violations like the ones Ball describes have been happening on a fairly consistent basis.
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