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Lonzo Ball Admits His ZO2 Sneakers Were Defective

Source: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty

Lonzo Ball has been an open book as of late. Earlier in the week he sat down with Big Boy and doubled-down on his take that Future has more classics than Nas. Now he is admitting that his BBB ZO2 signature kicks were defective.

Anyone could look at the sneakers and see they weren’t worth $500 and now the former face of Big Baller Brand finally admits to it. On a recent episode of teammate Josh Harts’ podcast, ‘LightHarted’ Ball revealed that shoes were “defective” and that his manager brought four pairs in a backpack because they would explode during games. Lonzo would switch them out after every quarter. Even though he knew that he continued to push the sneakers.

“No one knows the real story about them shoes. Them ZO2s I was playing in? They was not ready,” Ball openly admitted. “If you literally have those shoes from those, they’re exploded, bro.”

Zo even went further, implying that the shoe’s terrible quality directly impacted his performance on the court.

“It’s crazy, right when I switched my shoes, all of a sudden magically I got good again.”

LaVar Ball’s head must be spinning right now because he was pushing those shoes harder than his son was. When the shoe first dropped the BBB website claimed they were”meticulously developed at every stage by Lonzo Ball.” The head of the Ball family even went as far as to attack the critics of the sneakers. Who can forget his iconic “if you can’t afford the ZO2’S, you’re NOT a BIG BALLER!” Tweet?

The defective shoes are still up on Big Baller Brand’s social media accounts, but the store seems to have been shutdown. The once-heralded brand took a significant hit when Lonzo accused BBB co-founder Alan Foster of stealing $1.5 million from him. The Pelicans point guard even covered up his BBB tattoo. Looks like anyone who bought that sneaker might be looking at them even funnier now, we wonder if they would be able to get their money back? We sure hope so.

Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty