With trade rumors swirling about the Los Angeles Lakers trading away most of its young core players for 26-year-old New Orlean’s Pelican’s power forward Anthony Davis, Lonzo Ball’s father, Lavar, sold more testosterone boosters in the mainstream sports media. While the media likes to ridicule Lavar, they also like the way he grabs headlines making the most outrageous remarks imaginable, trying to sell his three sons to the NBA. While 59-year-old Lakers’ President of Basketball Operations Magic Johnson bought Lavar’s hype in 2016, drafting Lonzo No. 2, there aren’t too many other basketball executives impressed by the former UCLA prospect. Once Lonzo joined the Lakers in the summer of 2017, he was injured after winning the NBA’s Summer League Most Valuable Player. Lonzo couldn’t finish Summer League, sustaining a knee injury before the tournament ended.
While recovering from the knee injury to play in the 2017-18 NBA season, Lonzo re-injured his knee, missing 35 games in the 82-game season. Last year’s knee injury resulted in Lozo returning to the 2018-19 wearing a knee-brace for the entire season, playing 52 games before a grade three-ankle-sprain put him back on the Disabled List. Despite Lavar saying Lonzo was better than LeBron James, his son averaged 9.9 points a game in 2017-18, shooting 36% from two-point range and 30.5% from three-point range. When recovered from knee surgery in 2018-19, playing 52 games, Lonzo’s averaged 10.2 points per game, with 40.5 from the field and 32.9% for three-balls. While there’s a slight improvement, Lonzo has been a mediocre player, never coming close to Magic Johnson’s appraisal when he drafted the 19-year-old in 2016. Yet Lavar continues to run his mouth, touting Lonzo’s great talents.
Slamming 38-year-old Lakers’ coach Luke Walton, Lavar grabs headlines, blaming Lonzo’s failures on the coach. “Luke Walton was the worst coach he [Lonzo] ever had,” Lavar told the Phoenix-based “Doug & Wolf Show,” Feb. 6. “It was Magic [Johnson] the one who said he was going to be the dang face of the franchise. But Magic ain’t doing no coaching. And the only person to kill Lonzo is the coach pulling him out and not having no confidence in him,” insisted Lavar. Lavar has no explanation for why his son shoots at such low averages. Lonzo’s free throw stats aren’t much better, hitting 45.1% in 2017-18 and 41.7% in 2018-19, both abysmal percentages for a point guard drafted No. 2 in the First Round in 2016. Lavar wants to blame Luke but he’s not shooting the ball for Lonzo on the court or on the free throw line, nor is Luke causing Lonzo’s injuries.
For a 21-year-old, Lonzo has been injury-prone in the NBA, forcing him to miss nearly half of last season, now weeks, if not months, in 2018-19. Lavar is too busy making headlines to notice his son has a mediocre NBA track record, plagued by injuries in his first two seasons. Lavar’s fantasy of watching his three sons signed to NBA contracts has gone up in smoke. Turning his ire on Walton does nothing for Lonzo or his sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo. Lavar raged against LiAgnelo and LaMelo’s Lithuanian coach last year before yanking them out of Europe. LiAngelo killed his NBA career, getting kicked off the UCLA basketball team for shoplifting while on an exhibition Nov. 7, 2017 in Shanghai, China. Yet Lavar still thinks he can con the Phoenix sons into taking all three sons, if the Lakers use Lonzo as trading bait for a max player like Pelicans’s power forward Anthony Davis.
With the NBA’s trading deadline passed today without a deal for Davis, the Lakers are stuck with Lonzo and their young core until further notice. Lavar’s recent media tirade had to do with his fear Lonzo would be dished to New Orleans in a trade deal for Davis. Lavar blamed Walton for turning Lonzo into a “loser,” because of his inability to coach properly. But one brief look at Lonzo, he’s got a deformed looking jump shot, something Magic Johnson should have seen before signing him to a multi-year-deal. Lonzo’s numbers have remained consistent over two seasons, suggesting that not much will change in the future. While it’s true Lonzo has good court vision, knows how to space the floor and deliver the ball to his teammates, its’ also true he’s a mediocre shooter, especially free throws. New Orleans declined the deal with the Lakers for Davis because they figured all this out.
Lavar Ball’s ability to grab headlines, no matter how crazy, is based on a 24/7 media hungry for headlines. Media outlets bear just a much responsibility for Lavar’s outrageous statements, giving him air-time and print coverage. “I gave the Lakers the first right of refusal to get all three of the Ball boys. They didn’t want that. I’m telling you. My boys are going to take over the NBA . . .” Lavar said, refusing to face reality that the best of his kids, Lonzo, has performed poorly in the NBA. No coach can be blamed for Lonzo’s mediocre shooting and poor free throw averages. “AD is good. But he’s not a winner. How many playoff games has he won? He’s been in the league a long time, there’s a difference between players and winners,” Lavar said, showing how he’s gone off the rails. If there’s any regret the Lakers have it’s that they have to listen to Lavar spew such nonsense in the press.
