De’Aaron Fox’s father can’t help but respond to LaVar Ball’s trash talk

De’Aaron Fox’s father said of trash talk from Lonzo Ball’s dad: “I don’t even got to respond to that.”

But he went ahead and did it anyway.

“My son already ate his ass up twice,” Aaron Fox said of LaVar Ball’s son. “[LaVar] can say what he wants to say. I just tell him to go back and watch the film. That’s it. All that yap, yap, yapping, I don’t even got to respond to that. We played them twice. Twice his son got outplayed. I always tell [De’Aaron], let your game speak for it. You ain’t got to talk. You ain’t got to fuss.”

Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox and UCLA’s Lonzo Ball squared off twice during their one-season college careers. The Bruins won the first game 97-92 back in December, but Fox won the battle of the star point guards with 20 points and nine assists to Ball’s 14 points, seven assists and six turnovers.

Still, going into the teams’ matchup in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16, LaVar Ball had this to say about De’Aaron Fox:

“He can’t mess with Zo. You can have 40 points and Lonzo can have two points and make the game winner, and I’m going with him. You had more points, but look at who won the game. I guess [De’Aaron] really didn’t outplay him. It’s a team sport. All my boy is worried about is his team winning.”

De’Aaron Fox dominated that game, outscoring the UCLA star by 39-10 in Kentucky’s 86-75 win. But that still didn’t quiet LaVar Ball.

“They came up short, but one game doesn’t define his season,” he said of his son. “No one is going to take De’Aaron Fox over him because of one game. It’s about your body of work, and people know what he can do.”

Even if Aaron Fox isn’t taking his own advice against talking and fussing, his son seems to be taking it to heart. De’Aaron Foz was asked last week during a workout with the Lakers about his performances against Lonzo Ball last season.

“It doesn’t matter,” De’Aaron Fox said. “It’s college. We put that behind us.”

charles.schilken@latimes.com

Twitter: @chewkiii