Lonzo Ball is just telling everyone what is now common knowledge: as long as the NCAA refuses to pay players legally, they’ll find a way to get money & benefits through sleazier avenues.
The recent fallout at Louisville & the new SI report about a handful of top schools currently under federal investagation, shows that these high-level programs will always find a way around established recruiting rules; and if you were to ask Rick Pitino “was losing a national championship & over 100 wins worth it?”, of course, he’d tell you no. But his bank account & the school’s bottom line say otherwise.
Los Angeles NBC reporter Shahan Ahmed asked Ball straight-up if he thought college athletes should be paid. His response probably won’t surprise you:
Lonzo Ball, should NCAA players be paid? “I do. All the money they generate for the programs & stuff, it’s kind of an unfair system…Everybody knows everybody’s getting paid & that’s how it is. Everybody’s getting paid anyway. You might as well make it legal. That’s how I feel.”
— Shahan Ahmed (@shahanLA) February 23, 2018
Lonzo Ball said he did not get money from agents when he was in school: “My dad’s not big on that, so just kinda focued on going there and getting out.”
— Shahan Ahmed (@shahanLA) February 23, 2018
It’s also not surprising that Lonzo didn’t accept any benefits at UCLA, as LaVar has gone on the record many times stating how he guarded against agents & boosters all throughout Lonzo’s high school & college career.