Lonzo Ball will never have to hire his own hype man, that’s for sure. It’s been well known for a while that the best person at promoting Lonzo Ball is probably his father LaVar.
We’ve all seen at least portions of the ESPN or Fox Sports segments where LaVar feuds with an ESPN or FS1 host about whether or not Lonzo will be good over his NBA career. Now that Lonzo has a couple NBA games under his belt and points to his name, NBA players seem to feel comfortable speaking out about the young Laker rookie and his relationship with his father.
Take Marcin Gortat, for example. Gortat is a 6’11” center who plays for the Washington Wizards. On Wednesday night in Los Angeles, the Lakers will play host to the Wizards and Gortat will get his first opportunity to block a couple of Ball’s shots.
Well earlier this week, LaVar said the Wizards “better beware because Lonzo ain’t losing again. Not in the same week.”
https://twitter.com/Ballislife/status/922461874670600193
LaVar is once again hyping up his son and this time, it may backfire again.
On Monday, Gortat posted the following on Twitter.
man….. pleaseeeeee!!! @JohnWall will torture him for 48min 😂😂😂😂
— Marcin Gortat🇵🇱 (@MGortat) October 23, 2017
Which eventually led to this…
he will kill his son one day
— Marcin Gortat🇵🇱 (@MGortat) October 23, 2017
While kill might not be the operative word here, a better way of phrasing it may be “he will make opposing teams crave an opportunity to embarrass him on the court.” After all, Kyrie Irving already said LaVar has put a target on Lonzo’s back. And Patrick Beverley hit that target in the Lakers’ opener.
But the criticism for LaVar’s behavior from athletes isn’t universal. Over in the NFL, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman think it’s kind of cool
in a way what LaVar is doing for his son.
"Who wouldn't be proud of their kid going No. 2 overall?" @RSherman_25 talks @Lavarbigballer, @Lakers, @gordonhayward and more. pic.twitter.com/QnpmDmz10G
— The Players' Tribune (@PlayersTribune) October 21, 2017
At any rate, we’re all talking about LaVar again, and while that may or may not be good for Lonzo, it’s not bad for Big Baller Brand.