Oh hey would you look at that, LaVar Ball is back in the news again and he is criticizing those around his son Lonzo when things aren’t going well.
Much like the fact that the UCLA Bruins “Had too many slow white guys” when Lonzo Ball was playing there last season, he is now blaming coaching for the Lakers struggles and says that that they do not enjoy playing for Head Coach Luke Walton.
Here is what he told ESPN:
“You can see they’re not playing for Luke no more,” Ball said from a spa resort in Birstonas, where he is staying while his two youngest sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo, get ready to make their professional debuts with Lithuanian team Prienu Vytautas. “Luke doesn’t have control of the team no more. They don’t want to play for him.”
“That’s a good team,” he added of the Lakers, who have lost nine straight games. “Nobody wants to play for him. I can see it. No high-fives when they come out of the game. People don’t know why they’re in the game. He’s too young. He’s too young. … He ain’t connecting with them anymore. You can look at every player, he’s not connecting with not one player.”
While the Lakers are clearly struggling and there seems to be some chemistry and maturity issues as the effort and energy level has been visibly underwhelming as of late, LaVar should know that being the overbearing parent putting down his son’s coach never turns out well on any level, especially not in professional sports. This also essentially never happens in any other scenario because the media is not constantly providing a platform for any NBA player’s parents.
Walton decided to give it back to LaVar a little during the Lakers post-game press conference after their win over Atlanta on Sunday night…
Luke Walton is asked why Lonzo Ball came out midway through the first and third quarters. Walton cracked, “Um yeah, his dad was talking s— so I took him out early.” pic.twitter.com/kaqRRJSZLn
— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) January 8, 2018
Well played Luke.
LaVar Ball is only drawing the ire of one NBA coach (publicly), as Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle was not a fan of his comments or the platform ESPN is giving him:
“I view the recent ESPN article as a disgrace. ESPN is an NBA partner, and they’ve been a great one. But part of that partnership is that the coaches do a lot of things to help them with access, interviews, all those kinds of things. In exchange for that, they should back up the coaches. Printing an article where the father of an NBA player has an opinion that’s printed as anything like legitimate erodes trust.”
…
“I’m saying they should look at their sources and do a better job of determining whether they have any merit or any validity. Or are they just blowhard loudmouths?”
If we’re being honest Carlisle is right in an ethical and traditional news sense, but in the 24/7 social media driven, attention-grabbing media environment where we live in today where clicks and views are what sell and keep news outfits profitable. someone as divisive as LaVar is going to continue to have a platform unfortunately.
All this does is just add more pressure and scrutiny to Lonzo Ball, who seems to have none of the bluster that his father has.
