Bryce Alford: LaVar Ball gives Lonzo a 'rep he doesn't deserve'

It's impossible to talk about Lonzo Ball without his boisterous father LaVar getting brought up, but one of Lonzo's former teammates is hoping NBA teams can look past that when evaluating him as a player.

Bryce Alford spent last season playing with Lonzo at UCLA, and said the future lottery pick has a very different personality than his father, who has spent the past few months saying his son is better than players like Steph Curry and LeBron James.

"It's just an unfair thing for Lonzo just because he gets a rep he doesn't deserve," Alford told Bill Oram of The OC Register. "I don't want to say anything poorly against LaVar. I think he's done a good job of getting him ready to be where he's at and he's helped him become a great basketball player. So, I don't want to say anything that way, but he does get a persona that's just totally not him. He's an absolutely great kid, great teammate, and truly cared about what his teammates are doing more so than himself. So if anything, I hope NBA people can see that."

Alford, in his own way, has grown up playing in the shadow of his father as well. His dad, Steve, was his head coach at UCLA, and was one of the most prolific scorers in college basketball while playing for Indiana in the 1980's.

While there's rarely been a day since February that LaVar wasn't in the news, Lonzo is a very soft-spoken kid who prefers to let his on-court game do the talking. That demeanor could be a great benefit in the pressure-cooker that is the NBA, but whether teams can look past his father or not remains to be seen.