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It was really only a matter of time before a microphone would be shoved in front of LaVar Ball’s face after the Los Angeles Lakers miraculously walked away from the lottery with the number two pick in the upcoming NBA draft.
As has been the case whenever said microphone makes its way to the general vicinity of said overbearing father’s face hole, he said outlandish things. When Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd pressed on those things, he doubled down.
Putting aside for a second the offensive remarks regarding women — and there’s nothing that can be said of that other than it was stupid and offensive for the sake of the headlines he knew would be written about him. At some point, we have to learn our lesson — LaVar did manage to say something interesting about the pre-draft workout process.
When asked about the possibility of his son working out against De’Aaron Fox, who has garnered some attention after his Kentucky Wildcats overcame Lonzo Ball’s UCLA Bruins in the NCAA Tournament, LaVar threw down the gauntlet.
“Go ahead. He ain't scared of nobody. You want to work em out one-on-one then you're gonna see what really goes on. I hope the reporters and all the news is in there. De'Aaron Fox had one game for 39 points. Who else did he do that, you're going to justify his whole career on one game against Lonzo?”
On one hand, LaVar makes a valid point. It was a one-game sample size compared to the more impressive body of work Lonzo put together throughout his entire freshman year at UCLA.
On the other, LaVar himself admits in the clip that Lonzo is not a one-on-one type of player. So why issue the challenge if that doesn’t play to Lonzo’s strengths?
We could dismiss this as LaVar being LaVar, but if Fox does take LaVar up on the challenge he issued on behalf of Lonzo (who we really should be hearing more from, in all honesty), that workout would be worth the time of anyone interested.
ESPN’s Chad Ford and DraftExpress’ Jonathan Givony have both said the Lakers would prefer to work out Fox and Ball side-by-side at some point, and if this happens LaVar will absolutely believe they owe him a favor for making it happen.
June 22 can’t possibly come quickly enough.
Listen to our latest episode of Locked on Lakers, featuring our own Harrison Faigen discussing what keeping the second-overall pick means for the Lakers with Mike Prada of SB Nation, below: