ESPN's Jay Bilas Wrote A Lengthy Letter Blowing Up LaVar Ball

ESPN's Jay Bilas wrote a lengthy piece for ESPN.com on Monday after last week's incident in which LaVar Ball accosted a female ref working during one of his team's AAU games. Bilas ripped into him pretty good, here's a chunk of his piece...

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At first, I knew him as a sometimes entertaining mouth with little fiber behind his words. He made me laugh, and I enjoyed the banter. I laughed when he said he could beat Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley after averaging two points per game and shooting 40 percent from the field and 40 percent from the foul line at Washington State.

I was impressed by Lonzo, his oldest son, during his time at UCLA. I remain impressed by Lonzo. He is a nice and respectful young man who seems to understand the balance between confidence in his abilities and respect for his teammates' and competitors' confidence in theirs. I enjoyed LaVar as a more clownish version of Earl Woods (Tiger Woods' late father) or Richard Williams (father to Venus and Serena), but one who was smart and calculating. I thought LaVar was playing us all like his own Big Baller Brand Stradivarius.

He was fun to watch. And fun to laugh at. And laugh with. I thought he was in on the joke.

But to whatever extent I enjoyed LaVar Ball and his antics at first, I now find him close to intolerable. Instead of being in on the joke, he has become a joke, and it is no longer funny. He started to lose me when he publicly complained about his son's high school coach, who was ultimately out of his job. Then, he told Fox Sports' Kristine Leahy to "stay in her lane," which I found to be disrespectful and unnecessary to the point of being misogynistic. Then, he started to show himself through his participation as a "grassroots" summer basketball coach. He is needlessly profane and his conduct is out of control with officials and he's not worthy of being in charge of the development of young players.

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Read the whole thing here. Love this quote...

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I was wrong about LaVar Ball. He is not a Kardashian. That is far too kind. He is a misogynistic buffoon unworthy of my time.

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