John Wall told his Kentucky buddy De’Aaron Fox that UCLA’s Lonzo Ball will have a target on his back once he enters the NBA.
“John said you have a few players [who] have actually said it,” Fox said Monday morning on SportsCenter.
He added: “Lonzo is a quiet kid, I’ve known him for years. I didn’t know his dad [LaVar Ball] until our senior year of high school but he does things his own way, let’s put it that way.”
The 6-foot-6 Ball is projected to be the No. 2 pick by his hometown Los Angeles Lakers in Thursday’s NBA Draft, while DraftExpress.com currently has Fox going No. 5 to Sacramento.
“I’ve heard it,” Fox said of Ball having a target on his back. “At the end of the day, you still have to play basketball. You’re still playing the toughest position. You don’t even have to have a target on your back to have a tough night at the point guard position. Just going in, I feel like it is but I could be wrong. I never played a game in the NBA.”
The comments by Fox and Wall are not new.
Reggie Miller said his fellow UCLA product Ball will have a “huge bullseye” on his back once he enters the NBA because of all the controversial comments his father have made.
“Absolutely, I know if I was playing I would go after that kid,” Miller said last month on ESPN’s ‘Pardon the Interruption.’ “Absolutely.”
As for Fox, he worked out for the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday, the same day that presumed No. 1 pick Markelle Fultz also worked out. The Sixers are expected to take Fultz at No. 1 and pair him with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid following their trade with the Boston Celtics.
That leaves Fox up in the air about his fate.
“Honestly, that’s the beauty of it, just not knowing where I’m gonna go,” he told ESPN. “Could go anywhere between 2-8, so L.A. to New York. So I could be anywhere this country, so that’s really the part that I’m really excited about.”
