Father of UCLA star Lonzo Ball: ‘He’s going to be better than Steph Curry in the NBA’

It’s probably early to say that UCLA star Lonzo Ball will be better than Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, but doesn’t stop Ball’s father, LaVar.

“He’s going to be better than Steph Curry in the NBA,” he told TMZ.

LaVar Ball, known to be outspoken, said prior to the beginning of the college basketball season that UCLA would win the national title in 2017, and that Lonzo and his other two sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo, would be one-and-done college players before heading to the NBA.

“You gotta compare somebody to something, but you can’t compare my boy to anybody. They try,” he told TMZ of his eldest son.

“I’ll tell you this. They say he’s like Jason Kidd. But he’s taller than Jason Kidd. He jumps better than Jason Kidd. He’s longer than Jason Kidd. He’s got a better shot than Jason Kidd. How you comparing him?” he said.

He continued on saying his eldest son has time to become better than Curry.

“Steph Curry’s really good, but my son is young, he’s got time to go. And you only consider him good because he won a couple of championships. What if he didn’t win no championships? He made some shots at the right time. But he’s not as young as my boy,” he said.

Curry, in his eighth season in the NBA, was named league MVP the last two seasons and is currently averaging 25 points and six assists per game. He also holds the league’s single-season three-point record.

But just wait, says LaVar Bell.

“You’re not going to be able to say this until my boy is finished playing his career and then they’re going to look back and say, ‘How did LaVar know about this?’” he said.

Twitter: @edmgonzalez

eduardo.gonzalez@latimes.com