Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
LaVar Ball: “LaMelo Ball is the most notable player on the NBA. And you know this is your son, you just talking. Well, I'm telling y'all, with this social media, how could he not be? He been in 18 different countries and you got to watch my son grow up on Facebook. So who don't know him?"
Lonzo Ball: "I never went to any Nike deal, no Adidas deal. I never heard no offers or nothing. I was just doing what I was told really. I guess that would be my one regret, like taking control of my career earlier. Really I was just following my pops, just doing what I was told."
![“[Luke Walton] was kind of jealous of Lonzo getting …](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/content-pipeline-sports-images/sports2/nba/logos/13.png?format=png8&auto=webp&quality=85,75&width=140)
SiriusXM NBA Radio: “[Luke Walton] was kind of jealous of Lonzo getting all the light over there.” @Lavarbigballer on why he believes things didn’t work out for his son in L.A.
LaVar Ball: "How you think y'all would do all on the same team as grown men?" Lonzo Ball: "Obviously, I think we would be fine. It would be a good team, but I think that ship sailed."
Advertisement
Appearing on his father LaVar Ball's podcast alongside his older brothers, Lonzo and LiAngelo, the new Minnesota star expressed his excitement when he was asked what it feels like to be with the Timberwolves now. “It’s a dream, man. It’s a dream,” a smiling Ball told everyone while holding his newborn son, LaOne.
Lonzo Ball: "She did not leave him because he lost his foot, that is a myth that was put out there. My dad did a great job raising us, my mom did a great job raising us. They did not work out, and it is what it is."
LaVar Ball: "Minnesota Timberwolves, y'all did the coldest move in the game. You went and got that Melo. Yes, but here is the thing, let me give you the recipe. You got to get the other two Ball boys. You get the other two Ball boys, it will be the most watched team ever in the NBA. Trust me when I tell you. You don't think I'm just talking? No, I'm not."
Fullcourtpass: Lavar Ball on the Cavaliers getting swept by the Knicks “The Cavs got my son Lonzo for this exact moment. Yall didn’t get him for the season, you got him for this right here & look how you get blown out… Charlotte go get them boys” (h/t @SnapshotKyle)
Being the parent that he is, Lavar often comes to the defense of his sons. He unleashed a heated rant against Nick Wright. The Fox Sports analyst called out LaMelo for being a “clown” and a highly immature player. We got folks these over here who aren’t even commenting on the game, and talking about that somebody is a clown? Has Nick Wright ever looked in the mirror? I bet you if you look at the dictionary right now, and you look up a clown, you’re gonna see two things: one, you’re gonna see somebody with long hair on their sides and a big nose. Yeah, that’s Nick Wright, a clown in itself. He’s been a clown ever since I’ve known him. So don’t ever curl your lips and say a Ball boy is a clown.
Advertisement
The Ball in the Family podcast included the moment where LaVar Ball referenced his sons’ families while discussing his wider plans. “Gelo already got my number one pick: La’One. If I raised you three killas in the backyard, what do you think I’m finna do with a gym in the backyard?” LaVar said. The comment was made casually, but it immediately drew attention because LaMelo has not publicly confirmed having a child. He has also not addressed the claim on social media or in interviews, keeping the situation unclear from his side. LaMelo has been in a long-term relationship with model Ana Montana, but there has been no confirmation connecting her to the claim.
Ball did not produce well in a Cavs uniform; in 35 games, he put up just 4.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.9 assists while shooting 30.1 percent from the field and 27.2 percent from deep. It got to a point where Ball's father, LaVar, felt as though he had to step in and tell the Cavs how to utilize his son better. “You're already messing him up by not starting him,” LaVar said in an appearance on the Ball in the Family podcast. “You got him coming off the bench, running to the corner. He’s never played like that in his life and he’s supposed to adapt after he didn’t play all these years of basketball. That’s not going to work.” “I told them that when I went up there and I said, ‘If you only want him to play 20 minutes, how about we let him play 24 but just let him play the last two quarters?'”
He, of course, ended up playing just two seasons for the Lakers, with LA trading him away in the Anthony Davis deal back in 2019. But for LaVar, this was a huge mistake on LA's end, as he believes that they would have had multiple titles already had they just kept him. “He’s been groomed to make everybody better. Right, from UCLA days, the Chino Hills days,” LaVar said in an appearance in the Ball in the Family podcast. “How you make the best team? You got to have that piece right? Make everybody go. Average a triple double, but you got to let him go. Everybody who’s balling out of control came from the Lakers. Zo had them all running. They would’ve had championships by now.”
Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson was bullish on the addition of the selfless guard, touting his vision and playmaking. Atkinson, however, could not find ample minutes for Lonzo Ball. The 28-year-old Ball has been under multiple mentors in the NBA, but on “Ball in the Family,” he claimed that his father, LaVar Ball, and his former coach at UCLA, Steve Alford, coached him harder. “I felt like I was coached a certain way for a long period of my life, so when I got to the league, this was weird to me. Like if I was playing badly, somebody would be, ‘Oh, it’s okay.’ That wasn’t translating to me. I'd rather hear like, ‘What the f***? Do your s***.’ It was an adjustment. I haven’t been around a lot of coaches who are going to get on you like that,” said Ball. “Stan Van Gundy was kind of tough, I guess. But other than him, there’s really not hard coaching out here. I got coached much harder in college and by my pops for real.”