LOS ANGELES _ Until Saturday night, Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball hadn't spoken publicly about what hurt him the most regarding his family's saga with former business manager Alan Foster, whom Ball and Big Baller Brand sued amid allegations of mishandling their finances.
"We looked at the transactions," Ball said during an episode of "The Shop" that aired on Saturday. The alleged problems "didn't start happening until my mom got sick. She took care of all the money ... . So that's what really hurt me. That ... hurt. I don't even know what I would do if I seen him right now. I haven't seen him. When that happened, everything just went off."
Ball's mother, Tina, had a stroke in February 2017 and, afterward, began a difficult recovery period. That was about the time, Ball said, that Foster's influence on the family began to grow. It was also when Ball was beginning to prepare to enter the NBA.
Foster was convicted of defrauding 75 people of nearly $4 million in 2002, but Ball said he didn't know about that until recently. Having met the family when Ball was 12, Foster quickly became a close friend of Ball's father, LaVar. Foster was also a co-founder of Big Baller Brand; he remains a part owner of the family's shoe and apparel company.
Ball cut ties with Foster in March, and in April he and Big Baller Brand sued Foster for damages of at least $2 million. The lawsuit asserts that Foster defrauded Ball, misled him and mismanaged Ball's funds. The FBI also began investigating Foster's role with the Ball family as early as February, according to two law enforcement sources.
Since the lawsuit was filed, Foster has not returned repeated calls and emails from the Los Angeles Times seeking comment.
Lonzo Ball had spoken out before about how difficult it was to feel cheated by someone he considered like a second father but offered a few new details in the relaxed setting created by the show.
"The Shop" is an HBO show created in part by LeBron James, whose media company, Uninterrupted, produces it. Saturday's episode was filmed April 11, just two days after the Lakers' season ended. As Ball began talking about the incident, James explained to another guest that Foster was a close friend of Ball's father.
"Alan is his dad's friend who basically became his second dad," James said.
Said Ball: "I bought my mom and dad a house. (Foster) had a room. ... The way I feel about it is different. That's why I covered the BBB up on my arm. When I saw that, I saw him. That ... made me so _ I was tight."
Ball also described the difficulty of talking to his famously loquacious father about the alleged actions of such a close friend.
"That's the first time I called him," Ball said of his father, "and he literally shut up."
Ball said his manager, Darren Moore, was in the room with him during the call.
"I looked at D-Mo, I had (my father) on speaker: 'He ain't talking,' " Lonzo Ball said. "So that was hard because that was the first time I ever told (my father) that: 'Nah, let me talk.' I pulled up to the house that night, laid it out for him. Moving forward ever since."
