Lonzo Ball: BBB co-founder took advantage of my sick mom

Lonzo Ball said this weekend he was "hurt" that his former business manager and Big Baller Brand co-founder, Alan Foster, took advantage of the family.

Ball cut ties with Foster in March, claiming he'd embezzled $1.5 million from his personal and business accounts. The Lakers guard covered up his BBB tattoo and deleted references to the company in his social media posts

In April, Ball and Big Baller Brand sued Foster for more than $2 million in damages. The FBI has also launched an investigation into the three-year-old company.

Ball described the situation this weekend on LeBron James’ "The Shop on HBO, saying Foster took advantage of an illness to his mother, Tina Ball, after she suffered a stroke in 2017. Ball explained that his mother had previously handled the family's finances.

"Because when we looked at the transactions, that s— didn't start happening until my mom got sick," Ball said. "Because she took care of all the money s—. So, that's what really hurt me. Like, that s— hurt me. … When that happened, everything just went off."

Ball said he'd known Foster since he was 12.

"He was like my second dad. He was way more than that, though," Ball said. "Like, I bought my mom and dad a house — he had a room in there. The media sees — like, the way I feel about it is different. Why I covered the BBB up on my arm. Because when I saw that, I saw him. And that s— just made me so … like I was tight.

Ball noted that when he told his father, the normally talkative LaVar Ball, about the situation, "he shut up."

"[T]hat’s the first time I would say that I called him and he literally shut up," Ball said. "I would say that … he ain’t talking. He always talks. That’s the first time I was like, ‘No, you need to listen.'”