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Kristine Leahy responds to LaVar Ball: Disrespecting, threatening me 'not OK'

Richard Mackson / USA TODAY Sports

LaVar Ball - the father of projected top-three pick Lonzo Ball - made headlines once again Wednesday during an appearance on Colin Cowherd's show on FS1, "The Herd."

Ball had an uncomfortable back-and-forth exchange with Kristine Leahy during the program, telling her to "stay in your lane" while not making eye contact with her at all. The animosity likely stems from comments Leahy made back in March about LaVar's parenting style with his sons, although that wasn't made clear Wednesday.

Joining Cowherd, Jason Whitlock, and Chris Broussard on "Speak For Yourself" later in the day, Leahy responded to LaVar's remarks (transcribed by USA Today's Andrew Joseph):

LaVar Ball has every right to disagree with anything that I say, anything that any of us say. I really enjoy debate. I just like it to be respectful. You and I debate, we debate all the time. It's what we do here. But we do it in a respectful way. We don't threaten each other. We don't dismiss each other. We look each other in the eye. We don't make personal attacks about weight.

I asked him a question. That is my job as a reporter. And he came back at me in a very dismissive and inappropriate way. So, I had two choices: I could either sit back and take it … Or I could stand up for myself and talk to him. Still, with complete respect. And for the record, I've actually supported him being such a strong voice for his son, and we talk more about his son than anyone else because of what he's done for him.

He goes on lots of shows. He has this kind of shtick about him where he's outspoken, but with that, comes room for being criticized by the media. That's our jobs. And what he's upset at me for is for something that I said a few weeks ago on the show that when he was getting turned down from Under Armour, Nike, and Adidas for these partnerships, I said, "If he wants to think like a mogul and work with these companies, he has to look at what they do." And that's the market to women. Women are the people buying their sons' shoes. They make up more than half of sales for these types of brands. So, he has to think like that if he wants to be this big mogul.

So he was upset at me for what I said there, and that's completely fine. But you can't come at me and disrespect me and not look me in the eye and threaten me. That's just not OK.

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