LaVar Ball’s JBA League kicked off the same night as the 2018 NBA draft, and it appears the struggle to sell tickets we looked at earlier this month was real:

That didn’t matter to Ball, who found a way to spin the lack of a huge crowd. From the Los Angeles Times:

“They said nobody’s coming to this,” Ball said. “Everybody here is somebody. Nobody here is nobody.”

The JBA: Where everybody is somebody! That’s another all-time great Ball quote right there. And there’s more from him:

LaVar downplayed the possible business motives for starting this league. “I’m not worried about making money,” he said. “I’m doing this for the kids.” … “Everybody was like, no, the D-I players are already going to college and all this,” he said. “I don’t want them players. I want the ones that’s hungry. That’s what we’re going to have right here.”

You should read the rest of the Times article, which includes interviews with some JBAers who are excited to have the chance to get exposure in front of an online audience that was bigger than the head count in Ontario, California.