The NBA Is Making LaMelo Ball Cover Up His Tattoo Of His Initials Because That Also Happens To Be The Initials For His Clothing Brand

The NBA is in the throes of Tattoogate and it's thanks to LaMelo Ball and a tattoo of his initials...

...which are also coincidentally the initials of his new clothing brand and therein lies the problem.

According to ESPN, the league is requiring the Charlotte Hornets guard to cover a small tattoo of his initials, "LF." The tattoo in question is located just below his left ear.

LF is short for LaFrance which is the all-star's middle name, However, it's also the name of his clothing brand.

Ball covered up the tattoo earlier this week and was expected to do the same Friday night against the Milwaukee Bucks. However, he was doing this simply to avoid being fined.

That's because, according to an NBA spokesperson, the collective bargaining agreement prohibits players from "displaying commercial logos or corporate insignia on their body or in their hair during games."

You can understand the reason why. If the league cut a deal with Coke, they don't want some dude saying, "Meh, I'm more of a Pepsi guy," and rolling into the arena with a big ol' Pepsi logo on his arm. Not after Coke had given the league a bag of cash.

The same goes in this case. The league has clothing partners, LaFrance not being one of them.

NBA Wants To Make Sure You Know This Crackdown On LaMelo Ball Isn't About Stifling Players' Expressing Themselves... Even Though No One Thought That It Was

"LaMelo Ball's neck tattoo is in obvious violation of the rule and, accordingly, he's required to cover it," NBA spokesman Tim Frank said in a statement to ESPN. He also talked about encouraging players to express themselves and that the league takes "into account players' efforts to express themselves in a non-commercial manner."

I love that they always have to throw that in. They'd get a lot of respect if their statement just said, "No free ads," and that was it. Point made. We could all do without the wishy-washiness. We know why they're upset about this particular tattoo. Especially when there are an estimated 5,000,000,000 tattoos in the NBA (that's a rough estimate).

Ball has another LF tattoo on his hand (you've got to respect the dedication), however, that one was ruled less conspicuous than the one on his neck.

Both sides — the NBA and the Ball — are reportedly working on some kind of resolution.

Who knows what they'll come up with? I assume the NBA would prefer a course of action that rhymes with "shmazer shmemoval" though.

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