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We All Secretly Love LaVar Ball

It's undeniable. The Ball patriarch is infectious.

By Myles StedmanPublished 6 years ago 7 min read
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Admit it. You love LaVar Ball. The NBA would be a less interesting place without him.

I’ve known for quite a while now. It started when I thought to myself, “Why do I hate this guy so much?”

It was a question I thought I’d be able to answer easily. Why, there are so many things to hate about the Ballfather!

As recently claimed by his company, Big Baller Brand, Ball has been tweeted about over 2.5 million times in 11 months, since he first garnered any sort of attention, suggesting his son Lonzo’s school UCLA would win the Big Dance on air on ESPN.

This was nothing out of the ordinary. Just an (extremely) proud father confident his son could lead his team to victory in March Madness, and quite frankly, it was rather charming. Who doesn’t like to see a father as proud of his son as this?

Then, about two months later, came the big one.

Ball revealed to TMZ, “I’ve told them since day one, since they’ve been babies: someone’s gotta be better than Jordan. Why not you?”

To say NBA fans are precious about Michael Jordan would be an understatement. For someone to suggest they would like their career to finish in the vicinity of Jordan is sacrilege.

For the father of three thus far undrafted basketball players to suggest his sons could reach those heights is heresy worthy of burning at the stake.

Considering he’d already gone the full nine yards a few weeks beforehand, Ball took aim at the current Jordan of the League, suggesting Lonzo is going to be, and already is, better than Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry.

“Steph’s going to have problems trying to guard my boy. Play one-on-one!” Ball said to TMZ.

“Put Steph Curry on UCLA’s team right now and put my boy on Golden State and watch what happens.”

Not long after, Lonzo attempted to put out the forest fire his father had started in his now well-known, softly spoken manner, when speaking to the Los Angeles Times.

“I’ve been living with him since I’ve been born. He’s always been like that. I let him do all the talking and I just try and play.”

Ball then added himself to the fray, in speaking to USA Today.

“Back in my heyday, I would kill Michael Jordan in one-on-one.

“He better make every shot because he can’t go around me. He’s not fast enough.”

He even took aim at an athlete from another sport — the New England Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski — claiming to ESPN 850, “Gronk can’t hang with me back in my heyday. Too fast, too strong.”

Ball was a tight end who played for the London Monarchs in NFL Europe, and made the practice squads with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers, but we’re pretty confident Gronkowski would have him covered.

Hey, if you’ve gone the whole nine yards, you may as well see if you can bite off one more.

The comments caught the ire of Charles Barkley, the first major personality to speak out against the Ball circus.

“You can’t say a guy is going to be better than Steph Curry, a guy who has played 30 college games. I know you can be proud of your son, but at some point, it becomes stupidity,” he told SportingNews.

Unfortunately for Barkley, this is exactly what proud fathers do. They’re incapable of thinking any way else. The same way my father thought I was the best on every court I stepped onto, Ball thinks the same about his son.

His son is about to step onto the court with Curry, and you bet he thinks he’s better than the two-time MVP.

In this sense of the matter, Ball is really all of our fathers isn’t he? Or, at least the luckiest of us.

I was proud to have a father who was in turn proud of each and every dribble of the ball I made, and I’m certain Lonzo is equally as proud of his father not being dissuaded by the pubic pressure to keep his pride quiet.

Sometimes, proud parents can get on our nerves like Ball does, but really, we all love to see a father there for his sons, especially with the modern-day attention on the unfortunate absence of many black fathers.

In a way, it’s ironic. Society is well aware of the importance of any father for his son, but hey — just don’t be too proud.

Of course, Ball bit back at Barkley.

“If Charles thought like me, maybe he’d win a championship,” Ball said on The Herd.

“He says sometimes when stuff comes out of people’s mouths, it’s just stupid. Guess what? You’re talking, too.”

It’s an interesting point made by Ball. When a person who focuses on what can be done comes up against one who focuses on what can’t, there is usually only one winner.

Lakers fans will hope Lonzo arrives on their team with the same sort of optimism, after being drafted in June, which preceded a long six months of Ball attempting to “speak it into existence.”

Fairly quickly — on ESPN’s Draft broadcast, in fact — Ball kicked off, suggesting, “Lonzo Ball is going to take the Lakers to the Playoffs in his first year. Come see me when he does.”

Not long after, during Lonzo’s Summer League debut, Ball also predicted, “Rookie of the Year. It’s already a done deal.”

Lakers fans will also hope the prediction goes a little better than Ball’s call of the Bruins winning the Tournament.

Ball then speculated on what a shoe deal for his sons might, nay “should,” look like.

“A billion dollars, it has to be there. That’s our number, a billion dollars, straight out of the gate, and you don’t even have to give it to me all up front. Give us $100 mill over 10 years,” Ball said to USA Today.

Perhaps that was a mistake. Nike, Under Armour, and Adidas have all left the party. Later, Lonzo’s signature shoes from Big Baller Brand, the ZO2s, go on sale for $495.

While they were not exactly bestsellers, they did receive an endorsement from one famous fan.

Rapper Jay-Z said on the Rap Radar Podcast, “He may go about things wrong, he may have a big mouth, but I bought three pairs. Why? That man has a vision of his own.”

Facebook also recognised a success when they saw one. Ball’s Ball in the Family reality show debuted on Facebook in August, being viewed over 17 million times at its release.

Of course, Ball has made mistakes, including criticising Lonzo’s white teammates at UCLA, coming off as sexist in interviews on The Herd and during an AAU tournament, and pulling his team off the court during said tournament.

He also recently pulled his youngest son LaMelo out of Chino Hills High School, saying he would homeschool his final two years, after a disagreement with the school’s basketball coach.

"I'm not dealing with the coach over there. I'm not dealing with the administration over there. I don't want distractions on Melo. So, therefore, I'm going to homeschool him,” Ball said to ESPN.

Maybe he’s a little crazy, and maybe even a little drunk or high on the noise he’s been able to create, but through almost 12 months of Ball madness, it’s pretty clear LaVar is harmless, and doing this all for one reason — his sons.

There’s certainly been no shortage of commentary on whether or not all this is actually helpful for them, but Ball is aware of what his sons can and cannot handle. From all reports, Lonzo is incredibly well-spoken, and surprisingly humble.

I’ve certainly never publicly questioned someone’s parenting, and I’m not about to start. After all, basketball is just a game, and if his sons are good people, LaVar must be doing at least a halfway decent job.

To the point, I’ve stopped worrying about what it is Ball is going to say next, or rooting for his sons to fail. I see little point in doing so.

I think it’s good to see a father so supportive of his son, even if he doesn’t get it right 100 percent of the time. After all, how many fathers do?

Besides, how stale do you really want your NBA? We already have a bunch of players who are told to look, think, and act alike. The Balls' arrival is a massive inhale of refreshing air.

This League is run by Adam Silver; how much more stale can it get?

I know you like Ball. Maybe you don’t know it yet. Of course, it’s acceptable to be annoyed by him, but the League is certainly a less interesting place without him.

Here’s to our first year of LaVar Ball as an NBA dad.

basketball
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About the Creator

Myles Stedman

Journalist at Rugby.com.au | NEAFL media team

Contributor at Zero Tackle, RealSport, The Unbalanced, FanSided, Last Word on Hockey and SB Nation.

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