The phrase Ball Don’t Lie was popular in the 90s and 2000s. But where did it originate from?
Our team was down -a lot.
And it didn’t help that I was playing poorly either. Not that if I was playing well we would have been winning, but the deficit would have been much smaller.
My confidence was shot. None of the wide-open 3s I took were sinking.
I needed a boost; I needed an easy shot.
So, I ramped up my defense and intercepted a pass. I told myself I needed this bucket.
I sprinted down the open lane for the fast break. I pushed myself as hard as I could, thinking that I had my defender beat.
But he was so much younger than me and he caught up and contested my layup. As soon as I felt a tiny bit of contact -contact that didn’t warrant a penalty- I yelled foul.
Anywhoo, he tried to contest my call, saying that it wasn’t a foul. I said nothing and proceeded to the foul line to take my free throws.
As he passed me the ball and players lined up on the key, another one of his teammates yelled, “That wasn’t a foul.”
I just ignored him and took my shots.
I squared myself up, did my little foul-shot procedure, shot it, and missed.
“Damn,” I thought to myself. “Maybe the next one.”
Then, I missed the next one too (I should’ve practiced my free-throws more).
Out of nowhere, I hear one of my opponents, most likely one of the guys that contested the foul, scream, “ball don’t lie!”
All I did was smirk because I knew that he knew that I knew. Running back on D, I just thought to myself how I haven’t heard that phrase in a long time.
We ended up losing the game, if you’re curious. But that’s not what you came here for –you’re here to learn the history of the popular basketball saying “Ball don’t lie.”
The Story of Ball Don’t Lie
This phrase was first used in the NBA by Rasheed Wallace.
He was one of the toughest, grittiest, and most skilled players to play in the mid-90s and 2000s. He had this sick post-fadeaway that was unstoppable.
But as good of a scorer as he was, he was better on the defensive end.
Sheed was a menace defensively. He always wanted to defend the other team’s best guy (like Shaquille O’Neal) and if anyone stepped into the paint, he challenged them every time. He wanted all of the heat.
But the thing with him is that he never believed he fouled anyone. Every time the refs blew the whistle, he tried to fight it.
He was a fiery guy.
But since he played in a time before Coach’s Challenges were a thing, all he could do was complain… and taunt his opponents.
Every time a player missed a free throw after a foul he disputed, he would scream, at the top of his lungs, “BALL DON’T LIE!”
A lot of the time, this would actually get into his opponent’s head and mess up their game (like how it did to me).
Rasheed Wallace used this phrase a lot during his time with the Portland Trailblazers and Detroit Pistons and it became synonymous with him.
For a while, basketball fans thought he created it. But a few years after he retired, he disputed that story.
Wallace was asked where the phrase originated from and he said it was a term that players just said at the park in his neighborhoods.
“I’m from the city of Phili and you know, it’s just shit-talking in the street. It’s the same phrase as, you know, you go straight to the hole, get fouled and say what? And 1.”
Final Thoughts
“Ball don’t lie” is a fun phrase to use in basketball.
And now that you know the history of it, maybe you’ll realize that it’s not a disrespectful term and be more willing to use it.
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