Lonzo Ball Says 'Everybody Knows' College Athletes Are Already Being Paid Secretly

Lonzo Ball advocates for college athletes to get paid while in school.

Lonzo Ball
Image via USA Today Sports/Kevin Jairaj
Lonzo Ball

Until college athletes finally get paid, there's always going to be prominent voices calling for just that to happen at seemingly random times (aka when a reporter asks about it). On Friday Lonzo Ball weighed in on the ongoing conversation by stating that he indeed believes prep athletes should get dough for their services, in part because it's already going on:

Lonzo Ball, should NCAA players be paid? “I do. All the money they generate for the programs & stuff, it’s kind of an unfair system...Everybody knows everybody’s getting paid & that’s how it is. Everybody’s getting paid anyway. You might as well make it legal. That’s how I feel."

— Shahan Ahmed (@shahanLA) February 23, 2018

While that sort of makes it sound like he's copping to receiving payments during his sole year at UCLA, he did deny that he took agent money saying that that's not his father's style:

Lonzo Ball said he did not get money from agents when he was in school: "My dad's not big on that, so just kinda focued on going there and getting out."

— Shahan Ahmed (@shahanLA) February 23, 2018
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His comments come in the wake of a Yahoo! report that stated ex-NBA agent Andy Miller gave payments to potential clients through college coaches. Two of those players who allegedly received payments were 2017 first overall pick Markelle Fultz, as well as Ball's teammate Kyle Kuzma (who, coincidentally enough, also recently opined on this stuff).

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