“He was in a boot”: Hailey Van Lith once revealed her brother’s true reason behind quitting basketball

Basketball runs deep for Hailey Van Lith, and used to for her brother until one event changed everything.

In February 2020, SLAM uploaded a video of their "Day In The Life" series. This one featured Van Lith when she was in high school playing for Cashmere. SLAM interviewed her about her love for the sport, her future in the sport, and learning from NBA legend Kobe Bryant among other things in her life.

She was asked about how she got her brother to quit basketball because she "broke his ankles."

"My brother actually quit basketball because I broke his ankles. I literally broke, like I broke his ankle, and he was in a boot, and he quit after that, he was done," Van Lith said.

He was in like, seventh grade. My dad was the only one there. My dad tried to take a side for a while and deny it, but it was clean. It was a clean break."

Van Lith's father chimed in on the events, and while he said that no ankles were literally broken, an injury did take place that had things end up the way they did.

"I did witness it. She twisted him up. Yeah, she twisted him up but he did have. He had a stress fracture prior to a little bit and it didn't help," he said.

"I'm not going to say it was broken, but there was an injury involved in the incidents...she got him really good."

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Hailey Van Lith's Performance last season, expectations this year

Van Lith begins her last collegiate season with the TCU Horned Frogs, following her previous stop at LSU where she teamed up with Angel Reese after three seasons with Louisville.

That campaign saw her average 11.6 points, 3.6 assists, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game in 33 appearances. Despite having championship aspirations after winning in 2023, the Tigers were unsucessful in defending their title, falling 94-87 to Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Now at TCU, Van Lith has helped the Horned Frogs begin the year with a 78-41 blowout victory against Houston Christian. She was impressive in her season debut, finishing with 21 points to go with seven assists and five rebounds.

TCU will host New Orleans in their next matchup at the Schollmaier Arena on Nov. 10 at 3 p.m. ET.

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