Who Founded The NBA? Google Says LaVar Ball

LaVar Ball, the founder of Big Baller Brands and recent Twitter rival to President Donald Trump, is currently listed as the "Founder" of the National Basketball Association, or NBA. A Google search for the "Founder of the NBA" and similar variations produces the businessman as the top result.

Update: Google responded Tuesday afternoon, releasing a statement to several news outlets saying they "dropped the ball" on the NBA search glitch.

"Clearly we dropped the ball. Our team worked to address this issue quickly and within hours of being notified, we were able to fix the issue," the search engine giant told TMZ Tuesday.

In what appears to be a Google glitch, the true answer to the "founder of the NBA" search query would be difficult to break down to one single person. Instead, the National Basketball Association in its current form is the product of organizational mergers in New York City in the 1940s. Ultimately, no, LaVar Ball is not the founder of the NBA in any way, shape or form.

Social media took notice of Google's error almost immediately.

Ball is the father of Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball and LiAngelo, who was briefly enrolled at UCLA with a basketball scholarship, and LaMelo Ball. The family came under the national spotlight after LiAngelo was arrested in China trying to shoplift from a high-end retailer. Trump claimed in later tweets that Ball should have given him more credit for his role in getting his son released from prison. LiAngelo recently signed on with the Vytautas Prienai–Birštonas team in the Lithuanian Basketball League.

Ball responded in snarky fashion to the president's demands for credit via Twitter, even tweeting out a photo showing himself dunking on Trump in a gif. The fallout included alleged massive profits and exposure to his Big Baller Brands.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) name was initially adopted as the 16-team product of a 1949 merger between the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball League (NBL).

The founder of basketball as a game is easier to pinpoint to one person: Canadian-American physical educator James Naismith. Naismith is credited with inventing the ball-in-hoop basketball game at the age of 30 in 1891.