Lonzo: 'Everybody knows' college players get paid, 'might as well make it legal'

In the wake of revelations about an agency giving impermissible cash advances to college basketball players, Los Angeles Lakers rookie guard Lonzo Ball thinks it's time those types of transactions be done in the open, with the NCAA's blessing.

"Everybody knows everybody's getting paid," Ball told reporters Friday, according to ESPN. "Might as well make it legal."

Ball also made clear that he was being hyperbolic when he said "everybody," since he says he himself did not receive money from agents during his lone college season at UCLA last year.

"My dad wasn't big on that," Ball said. "We just focused on going there and getting out."

Other NBAers, like Kevin Durant, have offered similar rebukes to amateurism amid the ongoing FBI investigation into college basketball.

"Most of these fans go to the (college) games to see these players, just like in the NBA they want to see the best players, but they're not getting paid for it," Durant said. "And now I can understand why the other stuff starts to happen."