From one superstar sports dad to another (prospective) superstar sports dad: Cool it, LaVar Ball.
The father of Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant had a message for the UCLA personality parent LaVar Ball, originally reported by ESPN:
“The guy is going to ruin it for his kids,” Kris Bryant’s dad, Mike, said on ESPN 1000 in Chicago on Tuesday. “I mean that in a sympathetic/empathetic way. Let his kids go out there and play and let the rest happen. But to compare him to Michael Jordan and better than Steph Curry, c’mon, that’s disrespecting those guys. If I had five minutes with him and I could get him to listen for two of them I think I could get him to think a little bit.”
It certainly appears that LaVar Ball goes out of his way to make waves and keep his name in the news stream. Many feel that he pulls the attention away from his talented son, Lonzo, who has decided to declare for the NBA draft and is expected to be taken in the top three selections.
It certainly isn’t difficult to pile on LaVar Ball, but lets look at things from a slightly different angle.
His son, Lonzo, is a good player. A very good player. He isn’t a great player, though. Isn’t it possible that all the attention grabbing has actually helped keep his son in the minds eye of the public? Maybe LaVar is biting the bullet for his son to get his name in the mouths of general public without making him do all of the off-putting dirty work. P
erhaps LaVar Ball is in the middle of one of the greatest PR campaigns of all-time.
Lonzo obviously isn’t LeBron James. He isn’t Michael Jordan, or Kobe Bryant, or even Tracey McGrady. Lonzo has the looks of being an effective player, possibly an all-star, but not a transcendent player the way his father would lead you to believe. Maybe he really does believe it, maybe he doesn’t, but LaVar is doing well to keep his son’s name in the news stream. Talent isn’t everything, unfortunately.
We currently have a president that was elected largely because of the constant coverage he got in the media. (That and voter manipulation, but lets not get into all of that right now).
Nobody likes what LaVar Ball is doing. It’s obnoxious and loud and, for the most part, appears to be a persona created for the purpose of promoting his son’s brand. Call him what you will, but he knows what he’s doing.
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