Dad of rising Canadian basketball star Lyles raps about Kentucky Wildcats

Thomas Lyles isn’t just the dad of rising basketball star Trey Lyles, he’s also an R&B singer.

And when Trey was subjected to scathing criticism for signing with the Kentucky Wildcats, after verbally committing to Indiana years earlier, his dad wrote a song about it called “BBN” — in reference to the Wildcats’ fan base Big Blue Nation.

“I wanted to do something that made a statement for the program,” the elder Lyles said in a phone interview Tuesday. “Coach (John) Calipari does a really good job with getting the most out of his players and getting them into position where a lot of these kids are meeting their goals, their life-long dreams.

“Not everybody puts the player first. And a lot of times these kids lose out.”

He touches on that theme in the song.

“Say what you wanna say, we do things our way, we’re making dreams come true, let’s talk about what you do,” the lyrics say. “You lie, you lie, just to get by. You can run, but you can’t hide.”

The 19-year-old Trey Lyles was born in Saskatoon but has spent most of his life in Indianapolis. Trey verbally committed to Indiana while in Grade 8, and according to dad Thomas — or T. Lyles, his stage name — when he decided to back out of his verbal commitment, the Lyles family “took a whole lot of flack from the State of Indiana.

“It was bad, really bad. People were really talking bad about the family, people were wanting to try and pick fights with Trey,” Lyles said.

In the song, Lyles raps about a rival coach, singing “Pull up your pants coach, clap them hands coach.”

“A grown man decided he wanted to try and pick trouble with a 16-year-old,” Lyles said Tuesday. “It was ridiculous.”