Before a female referee was replaced on Friday, officials with Adidas had pressured referees at their Summer Championships event in Las Vegas to avoid calling technical fouls against LaVar Ball due to his drawing power and their potential courtship of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball, a source told ESPN.
The source said officials at the event, supplied by ex-NBA ref Ed Rush's Court Club Elite group, were told to "put three officials on the game who will keep him in the building" whenever LaVar's Big Baller Brand team played this week.
Ball was given a technical by the referee working Friday's game and, after Ball threatened to pull his team off the court -- as he had done in a different tournament last week -- she was removed from the game.