It didnt take LaVar Ball long to regroup after son LiAngelo returned home from being detained in China on shoplifting charges.After a couple of days of silence, LaVar’s verbal joust with Donald Trump, highlighted by a CNN appearance, raised his profile and profitability again. So now he’s decided to step into what usually is forbidden territory for parents and openly criticize the Lakers staff for how they are coaching his son Lonzo.
Eric Pincus on Twitter
At @BleacherReport LaVar Ball, Luke Walton Have Vastly Different Approaches to Developing Youth – Both are powerful voices in Lonzo’s ear. Call it an old vs. new school battle https://t.co/I1XjkGmBnK
“[Lonzo] doesn’t look like he’s searching for nothing,” LaVar Ball said on Friday after the Lakers lost to the Phoenix Suns at Staples Center, 122-113. “He’s trying to get that Wthat’s what it is.”
Lonzo isnt trying hard enough then because despite two triple doubles on the season, he is still shooting 31.3 percent from the field and an abysmal 22.8 percent from three-point range. Before Lonzo ever put on a Lakers uniform, his Pops said he was better than Stephen Curry. Now he’s saying numbers don’t mean a thing.
“Go get the W,” said LaVar. “Do whatever it takes. That’s why I’m down here saying, ‘Rebound!’. He’s been away from me too long. I see tendencies in his gamethey’re trying to baby him a little bit.”
“They’re soft. They don’t know how to coach my son. I know how to coach him,” he continued. “I tell him to go get the victory. Stop messing around.”
Bleacher Report on Twitter
LaVar doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Luke Walton when it comes to Lonzo https://t.co/nBfbLyA7rG
So LaVar has beef with Luke Walton now?
“No, I have a problem with losing,” he told Bleacher Report. “What I mean by babying [Lonzo], ‘He’ll figure it out. It ain’t about that. ‘Be patient with him?’ Ain’t no patience if you’re winning.”
“They’re letting it go too easy, saying they’re a young team,” he continued. “Forget about that! Put the [onus] on them. Say, ‘You guys need to win. You’ve got enough talent. Win some games.'”
Walton may be hesitant to push his players in an old school dictatorial fashion, but he needs to be less nice to LaVar. Parental opinion has no place in NBA decisions and people are letting LaVar Ball get out of hand, egging him on and forgetting that the NBA is a business and not a circus.
For all of LaVar’s marketing genius, hes not bigger than the game and hes not that important to the NBA in the grand scheme of things. And If LaVar is going to publicly undermine and criticize the coaching staff, then he will have to be dealt with. He cant be allowed to try and call shots from the crowd like this is still AAU ball.
It doesn’t work and won’t ever work in the NBA. It will get tiresome quickly. It already has to most Black folk, but White America is getting a kick of out of him and keeps shoving a mic in his face. Its very annoying.
First he wanted Lonzo to play more in the fourth quarter. Now he’s trashing the coaching staff and trying to backdoor his way into an assistant coach’s job. Imagine if teams had to deal with a bunch of LaVar Ball’s in the mix? His influence stops at the arena door, in case you didn’t know it, because he sure doesn’t.
Every father feels like if he coaches his son, he will be more successful. But hopefully LaVar prepared Lonzo to be able to receive other coaching and be motivated by a voice other than his fathers. That’s what being a man is, doing your own thing, not having Daddy come to your rescue.
Sometimes I believe that people think Lonzo is still 17 years old or something. Enough with LaVar’s big mouth already. When you talk junk all the time, sometimes you’re gonna sound ridiculous and then there are those few moments — if people are really searching for them — in which you sound genius.
He usually says his most outlandish stuff when Lonzo is going good, which hasn’t been often in his rookie season. The Lakers rookie has had flashes of productiveness but has been inconsistent.
NBA on Twitter
In just his 17th game in the #NBA, Lonzo Ball has recorded his 2nd triple-double of his career. #NBARooks
Now would be a good time for LaVar to just be quiet, like he was all last week when the family was scrambling, trying to get LiAngelo back to the United States and Lonzo was riding pine during crucial fourth quarter stretches.
When is enough too much? When is the Lakers organization going to tell LaVar thank you, but no thank you on his coaching advice and his constant jabbering.
LaVar has a reputation for running high school and AAU coaches out of town, but he doesnt own LA. And if he wants his son to, he needs to just be cool on issues that have nothing to do with him.
