Despite their feud and Twitter beef over the handling LiAngelo Ball’s shoplifting incident in China during the preseason when he was briefly enrolled at UCLA, LaVar Ball and Donald Trump actually have a lot in common. They’ll say just about anything, regardless of how dumb it is.
Just when you thought being over in Lithuania would offer a reprieve from the hoops carnival barker, LaVar has proven once again that neither geography nor common sense, and literally nothing can stop him because he’s all the way up, 24-7.
LaVar recently continued his outrageous claims that his sons are the best things to hit the sport in quite some time, comparing LiAngelo and LaMelo to Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.
In a recent interview with BasketNews Jonas Miklovas following Vytautas’ 151-130 win over Jonavos Jonava in the finale of the Big Baller Brand Challenge Games on Sunday, Ball said the only way to coach his boys is the way that Phil Jackson and Pat Riley once coached Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.
What Coach Phil did, back up, Michael Jordans the superstar, you cant coach him. Pat Riley, back up, let Magic do what he do. Hes a champion, LaVar said. How do you coach these guys? You dont. They something special. You let them do what they do.”
LaMelo Ball 40 POINT TRIPLE DOUBLE!! Melo Dunks It & Bows To Crowd In LaVar’s HEAD COACHING Debut!
LaMelo Ball had a 40 point triple double and LiAngelo finished with 31 in the 5th BBB Showcase game. This game also featured LaVar Ball in his head coaching debut. ——————————— Follow Us On Social!
Ummmmmm, ok LaVar. But he wasn’t content on putting an even bigger bulls-eye on the backs of his young sons. He went on to intimate that Steve Kerr, coach of the world champion Golden State Warriors, is a fraud.
“How do you coach KD [Kevin Durant], Steph Curry, Draymond Green And Klay Thompson? You know how you coach them? You don’t. Turn your back and let them do what they do,” Ball said. He claimed that Kerr is simply reaping the rewards of the work that former coach Mark Jackson put in.
“That’s why I call him the Milli Vanilli of coaching, because he’s not MJ,” LaVar said, “not Michael Jackson but Mark Jackson.”
For those that need a refresher, Milli Vanilli was a German R&B duo that sold millions of records and won a Grammy Award February 1990, only to be later exposed as frauds that didn’t sing a single vocal on any of their releases.
“He’s the Milli Vanilli of coaching,” LaVar went on. “What I mean is, you can go stand in the same spot like Luke Walton did and win 20-something games when you’ve got the right horses just running. Sometimes less coaching is the best coaching, but some of these guys like to act like they’ve really coached some guys that know how to play.
Melo is in that same book. Gelo is in that same [book]. They something special. So I just back up, tell them go get the victory and come on back home.
That’s easy to say when you’re coaching against a junior development team of teenagers overseas. Not so much in the NBA.
Unfortunately, LaVar’s bluster has taken away from his kids’ best performance overseas, though it came in the finale of the Big Baller Brand Challenge games, and not against grown men in the Lithuanian League.
LaMelo had a triple-double with 40 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds while LiAngelo added 31 points in Vytautas’ 151-120 victory over Jonava. It’s clear that they’re getting more comfortable playing overseas, albeit in the exhibition games, where playing defense seems to be optional.
What also seems optional is LaVar piping down. But I guess we’ve all learned by now that that ain’t never going to happen.
LaMelo Ball & LiAngelo Ball Quick Q&A (official video)
EXCLUSIVE: funniest interview with LaMelo & LiAngelo – Speed Quiz! BBB family videos.
LaVar served as Vytautas’ head coach for Sunday’s game after being an assistant in Tuesday’s win. LiAngelo and LaMelo combined for 80 points in Tuesday’s game.
“LaVar wants the team to play fast,” Vytautas coach Virginijus Seskus told ESPN on Tuesday. “He also has an idea for a new way for the team to play defense, so we’re going to try it out tonight. Today we’ll be like two equal coaches, but this will only be for the friendly match. We’ll see how it goes today.”
“Why not let him do it? It’s only a friendly match. It will end, and everyone will forget about it.”
Vytautas went undefeated in the Big Baller Brand Challenge games, which were glorified exhibitions against lower-level talent as LaVar labeled his uptempo approach with little regard to defense, “Operation Beatdown.”
“Run fast, have fun and let’s whup that ass,” Ball said during his pregame speech.
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What was the best sports speech of all-time? Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday Denzel Washington in Remember The Titans Kurt Russell in Miracle LaVar Ball before his head coaching debut in Lithuania GAME RECAP: https://t.co/xSz0hXLmna https://t.co/RS3LjOCBCj
This would be all well and good if Vytautus wasn’t sitting in last place in the real pro league that they play in over there, where the Ball brothers get little to no playing time, and not the junior varsity league.
But hey, LaVar’s gotta talk about something to keep us entertained.
