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LaVar Ball’s college coach Kelvin Sampson roasted him in 1988 newspaper article

June 24, 2017
by Aaron Mansfield
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Kelvin SampsonLaVar Ball

LaVar Ball has cemented himself as a well-known figure in sports. As ESPN’s Darren Rovell pointed out, Ball and his son, Lonzo, were two of three most-tweeted-about people during Thursday night’s NBA Draft.

LaVar has made some pretty audacious claims about his playing ability. Though he was by all accounts an average college player, he talks as if he could still get buckets in the NBA today. He’s even made some ridiculous comments about what would happen if he played Michael Jordan one-on-one.

Ball averaged 2.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game in his lone year at Washington State. That season was Kelvin Sampson’s first as the Cougars’ head coach. And, according to an old newspaper excerpt that surfaced on Twitter Friday, Sampson didn’t think much of Ball’s offensive game.

“We could lock LaVar in a barn for two hours and I don’t think he’d score 20 points,” Sampson said in Jan. 1988. “His role is not to score points.”

The excerpt comes from the Lewiston Tribune, a small daily newspaper that covers Idaho and Washington.

Ball didn’t get much love from the writer of the piece, columnist Jeff Spevak.

“LaVar Ball, now there’s a prime example of a role player,” Spevak wrote.

Ball was invited after college to a football tryout, and he went on to have a brief professional football career. He made the Jets’ and Panthers’ practice squads.

Sampson, who was only 32 at the time he made the above comments, went on to become the head coach of Oklahoma and Indiana. He’s now the head coach of the Houston Cougars.