PLAYERS AND MEDIA ALIKE HAVE EYE ON BALL
Overbearing father puts added pressure on heralded rookie early in his career
That’s his father. He’s his son. He’s probably been supporting him like that on everything he’s done. So you can’t be mad at him.
Lonzo Ball is five games into his NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Yet he has garnered more headlines and more attention than LeBron James, James Harden, Kevin Durant or any other player in the league this season.
In a nutshell, the microscope this kid is under extends far and wide.
On opening night, Patrick Beverley, a surly point guard previously employed in Houston who now calls the L.A. Clippers’ locker-room his home base, took it upon himself to shut the young man down.
Beverley succeeded and after could be heard crowing “Weaka$$ mother f#$%. Bring him out on the court with me and I will tear his a$$ up.”
There was no previous feud between the two. No grudge. Just a veteran already sick and tired of the attention a kid with an overbearing and too talkative father was getting.
The Raptors got their first look at Ball late last night at the Staples Center, but a handful of Raptors who previously shared a court with the NBA’s most hyped player of 2017-18 offered some opinions before the game.
Raptors guard Delon Wright, a young man who didn’t have these early trials and tribulations to deal with when he entered the league, fully expected Ball would get the kind of reception he got from Beverley and expects that will continue.
“I just feel like what his dad has been saying about him (better than Steph Curry, etc.) there are guys who feel they may be better than him and they’re not getting the attention or whatever it may be. He’s got a big name. Steph Curry has a big name and guys try and go at him like that, too. That’s the category he’s in.”
Veteran DeMar DeRozan has a few years in the league on Wright and doesn’t dispute Ball will continue to be targeted by opponents. But DeRozan thinks Ball can use that to his advantage.
“Yeah, I mean you are a week into the season and you’ve got headlines every single night,” DeRozan said.
“Whoever he is playing against, whatever point guard he’s up against, are making it a big deal. But that’s something that is a challenge and something that can be beneficial for him in the long run if he accepts that challenge. It’s not a bad thing. If you look at it that way, then that’s on you. But it’s something that if you are a competitor, you probably want that.”
The irony is, those that have met and played with Ball — like Wright and DeRozan — have no real issues with the basketball player.
By all early accounts, he is a quiet, team-first basketball player with potentially worldclass passing abilities and an awkward-looking but somewhat effective shot.
“I like him,” said DeRozan, who played with Ball a few times this summer at the Lakers’ practice facility.
“He seems like a great kid. Great passer, great facilitator. I think he’s going to have a great career.”
But LaVar Ball, the father who doesn’t seem to have an off switch as long as a camera is rolling or a microphone is in front of him, is the exact opposite of quiet and team-first. His only team is Team Ball and it consists of himself, Lonzo and Lonzo’s two younger brothers, LaMelo and LiAngelo. And the word quiet isn’t in his vocabulary.
DeRozan refuses to judge the elder Ball.
“He was probably doing that when (Lonzo) was playing hopscotch in elementary school,” DeRozan said after practice on Thursday. “He was probably the same way then. We don’t know. It’s just at a bigger magnitude now. But you can’t judge him. That’s his father. He’s his son. He’s probably been supporting him like that on everything he’s done. So you can’t be mad at him.”
Our opinions of LaVar Ball, the parent, or the probably unwarranted early attention afforded Lonzo Ball, the player, will all be moot. All that will matter is if Ball, the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft, can lead this Lakers team back into the upper echelons of the NBA.
There is no question they have put the keys to the franchise car in this 19-year-old’s pocket. Normally when a rookie goes down with an injury, it’s just a matter of looking for the next guy to fill his minutes. When Ball went down with an ankle injury during preseason, the response from his head coach was frustration at the lost time in training camp.
“It’s just going to slow down the process,” head coach Luke Walton said.
And that sums up exactly how important Ball is to his new team.