Basketball

LaVar Ball is finally showing his hand -- not that it wasn't obvious -- his endgame with Donald Trump is to line his pockets with profits for his Big Baller Brand.

We got LaVar Friday at the New York Grill in Ontario, CA, and he's reveling over his feud with Trump. LaVar was with sons Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo.

It isn't lost on him that he got the equivalent of $13 million in free advertising when he earned Trump's wrath by saying the Prez didn't really assist in getting LiAngelo out of Chinese custody.

LaVar thinks Trump needs a pair of ZO2's for his sanity ... and we're sure LaVar would be more than happy to send him a pair.

Master P says LaVar Ball is dead wrong for not thanking Donald Trump ​... Telling TMZ Sports he believes POTUS did help get the 3 UCLA players out of jail, and thanking him is the Christian thing to do.

Ball has refused to thank Trump despite the fact his son LiAngelo and the other UCLA players did, sparking a full-scale war of words between the Big Baller and #45.

We got P at LAX and asked him about the whole fiasco, and he couldn't have been any clearer, saying he believes in God and that means he believes in showing gratitude, even to Trump.

"I put God first, so I think that if somebody help you ... that you be appreciative, that's it."

For the record, we doubt LaVar will ever say "Thanks" to Trump, but we're pretty sure he's gonna have some words for P pretty soon.

Michael Rapaport is pissed at Donald Trump -- saying POTUS has forced him to side with one of the people he hates most in this world ... LaVar Ball.

Rap and Ball have been trading shots for months -- with the Hollywood star once famously declaring, "Big Baller Brand shirts look uncomfortable as f**k."

But now with Trump blasting LaVar in the media for not thanking him for getting LiAngelo back from China ... Rapaport is begrudgingly joining Team Ball.

"Donald Trump. You're such a f**k."

"You're gonna take away the pleasure I get from talking sh*t about LaVar Ball?"

Rap says when it comes down to it, he and LaVar are just "talkin' sh*t" -- but Trump's a "threat to society."

Kobe Bryant's 11-year-old daughter is already getting treated like royalty by the top women's basketball program in in the world ... begging the question -- is UConn angling for Gianna Bryant?

Mamba and Mini-Mamba hit up Pauley Pavilion in Westwood on Tuesday night to watch the Huskies take on UCLA. They sat courtside and they visited the players and head coach Geno Auriemma afterward.

The catch ... Gianna is a BALLER -- she's been training with her dad and learning all of his signature moves. Kobe has already dubbed her "Mambacita."

After the game, Kobe posted on social media -- "Thank you @uconnwbb for treating our baby girl to a night she will never forget #uconn."

Guessing UConn hopes Gianna remembers in about 6 years ...

Does this look like a man under attack by the President Of the United States?!

LaVar Ball was all smiles at the Staples Center on Tuesday -- cheesin' it up with his wife at the Lakers game ... hours before Donald Trump dissed him on Twitter again.

So, why the big smile?

LaVar's having a pretty good week -- he messed with Chris Cuomo on CNN, out-Trumped Trump in front of the world (according to Mark Cuban), and his son is home from China.

Not to mention, Big Baller Brand's new ZO2 shoes are finally about to drop. So the real question is ...

Why wouldn't he smile?

Listen up, Lonzo Ball -- Chauncey Billups says he knows THE guy who can help you turn around your historically bad shooting ... and he might even hook y'all up if you ask nice.

"If I was Lonzo, I would call Kevin Martin -- a guy in our league who had like this funky shot but he could shoot the hell out of it," Chauncey told TMZ Sports.

Pretty good advice ... Martin used to be one of league's deadliest snipers and, more importantly, did his thing with a jumper that looks JUST LIKE Lonzo's.

So before you heed the haters and start shooting like all the normies -- "Try Kevin first."

The man who obtained a restraining order against Ray Allen says he was NOT catfishing the NBA star -- the two were in a romantic relationship ... but Ray's attorney tells TMZ Sports the man is lying.

As we previously reported, Allen is in a legal war with Bryant Coleman -- a staffer in the communications dept. at the University of Central Florida.

Coleman says Allen's allegations that he pretended to be a woman to obtain "private information" about Ray are false.

The truth, according to Coleman, is that Allen offered up info -- along with pictures and videos -- knowing full well that Coleman is a man. He says their relationship goes back several years.

"[Ray's] account of our relationship is false," Coleman says in a statement to TMZ Sports.

"Ray knows how I look, he knows how my voice sounds, he knows how I think, and most importantly, he knows my heart."

"However, because of confidentially considerations, I am not in a position to provide a more detailed response to Mr. Allen's false and salacious claims. I will rely on the courts to protect me against Mr. Allen's violent threats and false accusations."

The exact nature of the alleged "violent threats" is unclear, but as we previously reported ... Coleman obtained a restraining order, claiming Allen was stalking him.

We reached out to Allen's legal team for comment and his attorney shot down Coleman's claims.

"Mr. Coleman’s statement would be funny if it wasn’t so crazy," Ray's lawyer tells us.

"There has never been and never will be a relationship or friendship between Ray Allen and Mr. Coleman. They have never met and never have spoken."

"Ray obviously hasn’t threatened anyone. Any statement or inference otherwise is a complete fabrication. Ray wants nothing to do with Mr. Coleman, who obviously has some serious issues with understanding the difference between fact and fantasy.”

Mark Cuban is CONGRATULATING LaVar Ball for his celebrity beef with Donald Trump ... saying the way LaVar has handled the China shoplifting crisis is straight out of Trump's playbook.

The Dallas Mavericks owner says the twist in the whole Ball vs. Trump war is that Ball and Trump are kinda like the same person.

They both know what to say to stay relevant. They both refuse to apologize for anything. They're both news media masters.

And, in the end ... Cuban says the real winner is the BIG. BALLER. BRAND.

Congrats.

NBA #1 overall pick Markelle Fultz has a new BFF -- 17-year-old cancer survivor Mike Shelly, who's insane half-court shot at Saturday's 76ers game led to a once-in-a-lifetime VIP experience.

Here's the deal ... Mike balled out in a shooting contest during Sixers vs. Warriors, winning Chick-fil-A (Markelle's favorite thing ever) for all the fans in the arena.

Pretty epic -- but Shelly's no stranger to overcoming the odds ... crushing stage 4 cancer to suit up for his high school football team.

So when Mike got an invite back to the Wells Fargo Center, Fultz gave him a hero's welcome -- telling him he had a better jumper and asking if they could bro out over some chicken sandwiches! (The 76ers hooked Mike up with 76 Chick-fil-A gift cards, FYI).

The franchise also gave Shelly courtside seats, a future road trip with the squad and more!

Awesome story.

Ray Allen claims he was catfished by a man pretending to be a number of attractive women -- and now he's filed legal docs to make sure the alleged catfisher doesn't leak his private information.

It's all in legal docs obtained by TMZ Sports ... the ex-NBA superstar claims he met these "women" in "various online forums" and communicated with them ... sometimes sharing "private information."

Ray claims he eventually figured out he was being catfished and ended the relationships -- but the man behind the rouse became obsessed and began posting items on social media about Ray and his family.

In the docs, Allen claims the man would physically go to Ray's wife's restaurant in Orlando and post about Ray -- tagging family members in the posts. Creepy stuff.

Ray says he got the guy to sign a confidentiality agreement in which he agreed to stop posting about Ray -- but the guy violated the deal.

Things continued to escalate -- and the man eventually filed for a restraining order against Ray claiming the NBA star was stalking him, which the court granted.

Ray is adamantly denying the stalking allegations and is now seeking a restraining order of his own.

"Ray wants nothing to do with [the alleged catfisher] and merely wants to be left alone," Allen says in the court docs.

We spoke with Allen's attorney, David Oscar Markus, who tells us, "Ray Allen was the victim of an online scheme to extract money and embarrass him by someone who appears to be troubled."

"The person who perpetrated this scheme has now started to stalk him and make threats against Ray and his family. Ray has taken legal action to put an end to the threats and to expose his manipulation and wrongdoing."

"Ray regrets ever engaging with this person online and is thankful they never met in person. This experience has negatively impacted Ray, and he hopes that others might use his mistake to learn the dangers of communicating online with strangers."

Herschel Walker says he's always been a huge Marshawn Lynch fan ... until Beast Mode dropped the ultimate diss on America this past weekend.

"To stand for the Mexico anthem and sit for the American anthem is total disrespect," Herschel told TMZ Sports in NYC. "Lost respect for you ... that’s just not right.”

Walker says disagreeing with Donald Trump is fine -- but clearly thinks the way Marshawn expressed it is outta line. As the former NFL superstar's told us in the past, he believes taking the fight to Congress AFTER the season is the way to go.

Reeeeelax ... Donald Trump's mouthpiece says POTUS was only tweeting "rhetorically" when suggesting he should have left LaVar Ball's son in a Chinese jail.

Yep.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders just addressed the media ... and was asked about Trump's tweets in which he said LaVar was "unaccepting" of what he did for LiAngelo Ball and said, "I should have left them in jail."

When questioned at Monday's White House news conference, SHS said, "It was a rhetorical response to a criticism by the father."

"Frankly it didn't seem like the father wanted the President to intervene which I think would've been a sad thing if he hadn't."

"LaVar Ball. Good lookin' out. I wouldn't have thanked the motherf**ker either."

That's Snoop Dogg heaping all sorts of praise on LaVar Ball and Marshawn Lynch in a heated rant about President Trump.

Snoop slams Trump as "garbage" and a "piece of s**t" for the way he's publicly treated the Ball family and Lynch ... he doesn't hold back.

"Let's suspend your ass motherf**ker," Snoop said in a response to Trump calling for the NFL to bench Lynch if he doesn't stand for the national anthem in the future.

Lonzo Ball just became the youngest NBA player to ever record a triple-double, but he's got a looong way to go to reach Harlem Globetrotter status ... so says a real-deal Harlem Globetrotter!!

TMZ Sports spoke with "Hoops" Green -- the 15th woman in the team's 91-year history -- who says Zo doesn't have enough swag to don the Red, White and Blue.

How did it feel to jam the rock down Lonzo Ball's throat??

Ben Simmons wouldn't say ... but his smirk told us everything we needed to know.

TMZ Sports got Ben hitting Delilah and Warwick with 76ers bro Robert Covington after they took out Lonzo's Lakers at Staples -- why not celebrate, right?!

Simmons straight up dominated their matchup ... so when we asked about his dunk that sent 'Zo to the shadow realm, Ben reacted pretty much how you'd expect.

B.S. seems to love the club scene -- and so far, it hasn't impacted his play. He was out early Wednesday morning and still killed it later that day.

FYI, we bumped into a couple of the 76ers assistants on gameday ... and they didn't seem to mind.

LaVar Ball tells TMZ Sports he expects to have an encounter with President Trump now that he's back in the U.S. ... and he expects it to go well.

"We're gonna run into each other. We'll be good," LaVar said after touching down at LAX Wednesday night with his youngest son, LaMelo.

The Big Baller was clearly being careful with his words -- and for good reason -- since his son LiAngelo is still in the middle of an international incident after shoplifting in China.

It seems LaVar is confident everything is going to be okay ... and he's using the media attention to put a spotlight on his favorite thing in the world -- Big Baller Brand!!!