The Ball family has been making headlines later.
No, not just UCLA star G Lonzo Ball.
His father, LaVar, has been making waves of his own recently.
It all began about four weeks ago, when LaVar was quoted as saying his son would only play for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA. Shortly after, LaVar said his son, Lonzo, is better than Warriors G Stephen Curry, who has won both the MVP award and an NBA Finals title in the past two seasons.
That caused TNT analyst, Charles Barkley, to lose his cool.
“Just because you say some s–t, doesn’t make it right. He’s gonna be better than Steph Curry? That’s what he said. Steph Curry has won a couple MVPs, he’s pretty good. Man, let me tell you something. That’s that AAU s–t. 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,” Barkley said, according to Sporting News.
LaVar responded, “Maybe if he [Barkley] thought like me, maybe he’d win a championship.”
About a week ago, LaVar claimed that he would be NBA Legend Michael Jordan in a game of one-on-one. That comment blew many media personalities and outlets away, especially coming from a man that averaged just 2.2 points per game during his lone season playing for Washington State.
This set Barkley off again, as he then challenged ball to a game of one-on-one.
On ESPN’s Mike & Mike In the Morning, Barkley said, “I’m too old and fat to play basketball, but I’ll challenge Mr. Ball to a one-on-one. I don’t even know how old he is. He’s gotta be around my age. But ain’t no guy who averaged two points per game can beat me one on one. I’m positive of that.”
Things finally hit a more serious tone this week, after Chris Broussard’s In the Zone podcast featured the elder Ball mentioning that his sons would have a better chance in the NBA than LeBron James’, suggesting that it would be too hard to live up to James’ legacy.
James responded by telling ESPN on Tuesday that Ball should “keep my kids’ name out of your mouth, keep my family out of your mouth. This is dad to dad. It’s a problem now.”
Yesterday, USA Today published a piece that took a look at how Ball is handling his two younger sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo, as they make their way through their high school careers.
The piece paints a picture of disorder, with Chino Hills coach Stephen Gilling, fighting Ball for control and order of his team. In fact, Gilling says that after one incident in which Ball attempted to show up and embarrass Gilling that the kids “looked at me different,” referencing a confusion about who the kids should really be listening to for guidance.
While some find Ball to be brash, loud, and far too outspoken, others think that he is just supporting his children in his own way while gaining the attention he wants by doing it.
Our question is, what do you think of LaVar Ball, father of UCLA standout, Lonzo Ball?
