LaVar Ball Rips De'Aaron Fox, Says Lonzo Never Ducked Him During Summer League

LaVar Ball didn't have much time for the notion his son, Lonzo, ducked Sacramento Kings guard De'Aaron Fox when the Kings met the Los Angeles Lakers in the Las Vegas Summer League earlier this month.

LaVar's comments came during an interview with Mark Willard and Chris Broussard on Fox Sports Radio (via CSN Bay Area's Ali Thanawalla):

"Duck De'Aaron Fox? Have you heard about De'Aaron Fox? Hell nah. You can't hear about him unless he puts my boy's name in his mouth. He been doing all this stuff and ain't nobody been talking about him. So he and his dad gotta link themselves to us to be relevant. De'Aaron Fox had a whole season and the only thing they talk about is 39 points against Zo. You don't put Zo in a sentence, nobody cares about him."

A groin injury kept Lonzo out of the Lakers' 95-92 victory over the Kings on July 10.

Some had joked that Lonzo was afraid to face off with Fox after the two met in the Sweet 16 of the 2017 NCAA tournament. Fox scored 39 points in helping the Kentucky Wildcats beat the UCLA Bruins 86-75. Ball scored 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting and committed four turnovers.

Fox appeared to allude to Ball's injury in a since-deleted tweet, which the Los Angeles Times' Tania Ganguli shared:

The Lakers didn't need Ball to hold Fox relatively in check during their summer league win. He scored 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting.

With Ball and Fox playing in the same division, this may only be the next entry in a budding rivalry that will unfold over the next few years.