LaVar Ball blames white guys’ foot speed for UCLA demise
Lonzo Ball pulled his hamstring during UCLA's season-ending loss to Kentucky in the Sweet 16, his father LaVar Ball revealed Thursday, adding it prevented him from taking over for teammates that lacked the athleticism required to win a national championship.
"Realistically you can't win no championship with three white guys because the foot speed is too slow," LaVar 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 was presumably referring to UCLA starters TJ Leaf, Bryce Alford and Thomas Welsh, who combined for 39 points in the third-seeded Bruins' 86-75 loss in the NCAA tournament on March 24. UCLA's freshman point guard finished his final college game with 10 points, eight assists and four turnovers while Ball's counterpart, Kentucky's De'Aaron Fox, scored 39 points, a record for a freshman in the NCAA tournament.
LaVar Ball told the Southern California News Group before the season that UCLA would win the national championship.
Lonzo Ball never mentioned the hamstring injury following the loss to Kentucky and it's unclear when he suffered the ailment. By the end of the game, he appeared to have a different gait.
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Bruins coach Steve Alford said in his postgame news conference that Ball was healthy, but admitted the two only spoke briefly after the game.
"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 dealt with his share of injuries down the stretch of his only season at UCLA, bruising his hip in the first round of the NCAA tournament and jamming his thumb in the Bruins' loss to Arizona in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament.
The thumb injury limited him to eight points on 2-of-7 shooting with six assists and four turnovers in the March 10 loss to eventual Pac-12 tournament champion Arizona, which may have cost UCLA a higher seed in the NCAA tournament.
Ball was undercut trying to catch a lob pass late in the first half of UCLA's win over 14th-seeded Kent State on March 17. He landed hard on his right hip and briefly remained on the floor in obvious pain, but remained in the game.
After each injury this season, Ball gave a nearly identical answer. "I'm fine."
"You've got to kill him to get him off the court," LaVar Ball said. "If you get in a bar fight and your eyeball gets knocked out, you can't go outside and say my eye's hurt. You got to go in there and fight with your eye hanging out. You never leave your brothers hanging on the court."
Ball played through two significant injuries during postseason play in high school, a dislocated middle finger on his shooting hand last season and an Achilles tendon injury his sophomore year at Chino Hills High School.
The five-star recruit dislocated his finger in his penultimate regular season game at Chino Hills, according to multiple sources, but found creative ways to play through it during eight consecutive playoff wins on the way to a 35-0 season that included a CIF State championship and No. 1 national ranking.
He dealt with an Achilles injury the last month of a sophomore season that ended with losses in the CIF Open Division championship game and semifinal of the CIF State tournament.
During Chino Hills' celebrated run to a mythical national championship last season, he primarily caught and passed the ball with his left (non-shooting) hand. His outside shot was severely hampered by the injury and he even attempted some free throws with his left hand.
Ball wore tape on the finger throughout a playoff run during which Chino Hills won by an average of 28.5 points, but wasn't asked about an injury that never became public knowledge.
"We couldn't put it in a cast because it was playoff time," LaVar Ball said. "He played left-handed as much as he could. Most of the time he would act like he was going to shoot and drive to the basket."
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