On his debut on LeBron James’s HBO show “The Shop,” Lonzo Ball detailed his first reaction to discovering that Alan Foster—a longtime friend and business partner— had been stealing money from Ball’s business account. Ball was devasted and angry when he learned that Foster had betrayed his trust, especially since the two knew each other since Ball was 12-years-old. The FBI is currently investigating Foster for fraud and theft.
“Yeah, I’ve known him since I was 12. People don’t understand like how much he meant to me. When I bought my mom and dad a house, like he had a room. The way I feel about him is different. That’s why I covered up the BBB [tattoo] on my arm. Cause when I say that, I saw him, and that shit made me so…like I was tight.
Ball continued to say that Foster’s dealings behind his back coincided with when his mom was sick. This discovery that his trusted business partner had taken advantage of his mother’s sickness to steal money from him caused tremendous emotional pain to Ball.
“Cause when we looked at the transactions, shit started happening when my mom got sick. She took care of all the money shit. So that’s what really hurt me. I don’t even know what I would do if I see him right now. When that happened, everything just went off.”
Once Ball discovered Foster’s actions, he contacted his father, Lavar, to set things straight. Although the media had speculated that Ball’s relationship with his father was rocky because of what was happening with Foster, the point guard said the two had since moved on from their productive conversation.
“It wasn’t hard because people, how they see my dad is how the media sees him. But me, I can tell him anything. But that’s the first time, I would say, that I called him, and he literally shut up. I would say that. So that was hard because that’s the first time I ever told him that. We stopped, and I pulled up to the house later that night and laid it out for him. We’ve been moving forward ever since.”
It is great to see that Ball has taken actions to not only protect his business but also to continue to develop a strong relationship with his father and nurture that same sort of relationship for his daughter who he credits for inspiring him to take control over his life.
