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Video: LaVar Ball, Who Says He Could Have Beaten Michael Jordan, Loses To Ice Cube In 4-Point Contest
Ice Cube and Lavar Ball. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
LaVar Ball makes some lofty claims about his son Lonzo—the Lakers' newest top prospect. The loftiest of claims, however, are reserved for himself. While Ball's basketball career is limited to a brief (and unspectacular) college stint at Washington State, he maintains that, during his prime, he could have beaten Michael Jordan one-on-one. He also said that Charles Barkley could have won a championship if he'd adopted a more LaVar frame of mind.
One person that Ball may have overlooked? Ice Cube—N.W.A. co-founder, noted fictional barber, and owner of the brand new BIG3 basketball league, in which former NBA stars square off in three-on-three battles. At Sunday's BIG3 event at Staples Center, Ball was invited to challenge Ice Cube at a 90 second, four-point shooting challenge (basically, you're shooting from a zone marked with the number "4").
The tl;dr version of this story is that Ice Cube won (with his two baskets compared to Ball's one). The longer story is that Ball was a master bricklayer, as two of his first three shots hit nothing but air. This didn't diminish Ball's enthusiasm, of course. In fact, as the announcer gets set to name Ice Cube as the winner, Ball raises his hands as if expecting to hear his name (despite, you know, empirical data saying he lost).
As noted at the L.A. Times, Ice Cube was the one who had proposed the challenge, and Ball had accepted the offer a couple weeks ago via Instagram. In a video message, Ball does a jump shot to show off his "still pretty" form. While the basket is off camera, many in the comments section say that, judging from the sound, the shot was likely a dud.
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