LaVar Ball Says Comments on Female Referee Weren't About Gender

LaVar Ball didn't express any regret Saturday for telling a female referee to "stay in her lane" after he received a technical foul while his AAU team, the Big Ballers, were playing Friday at the Adidas Uprising Summer Championships.

"You guys are trying to make it like a gender thing; it's not that," Ball said, according to ESPN.com's Jeff Borzello. "All I'm saying was, what's her name? Exactly. The only reason you know her is she gave me and my son a tech. And that's what it is when you ref somebody who's got a high celebrity. Every coach acts like that because the intensity of the game is so high. And I'm just saying, don't have no vendettas in here."

Ball followed up by saying that while he doesn't believe the referee he successfully lobbied to have removed meant any harm, he's not sure if she should be officiating men's games.

"It's not about me hating that lady or something like that," Ball told Borzello. "She just got caught in a bad place: messing with me. She's good. She's probably a great ref with the women. But this men's stuff. It's a difference between women's basketball and men's basketball."

CBS Sports' Matt Norlander relayed video of those comments:

Ball wasn't involved in any confrontations Saturday, as his team bowed out of single-elimination play in the Silver Championship bracket with a 116-95 loss to Team Lillard.