Prep coach has hands full with stars’ father
Stephan Gilling, boys basketball coach at Chino Hills ( Calif.) High, hasn’t forgotten the deep voice shouting from the stands at a quarter- full Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. It was LaVar Ball, the father of Chino Hills’ LiAngelo and LaMelo and UCLA star Lonzo.
Ball has been in the headlines in recent weeks, making bold statements about his sons and delivering verbal jabs at the likes of Charles Barkley, Stephen Curry and Michael Jordan. But on this mid- December day, he was focused on Chino Hills’ game plan. “Double- team! Double- team!” he implored.
Gilling, a first- year head coach, had won his first nine games, but after a pair of close wins in the Tarkanian Classic, the Huskies faced another test against Roosevelt ( Calif.) High. They went into the locker room at halftime trailing by 12 points. Chino Hills had been doubleteaming Roosevelt’s shooters during the first half, but Gilling needed to make an adjustment to his plan.
“I go into the locker room, and I tell the guys to stop double- teaming. ‘ Just stay with your man,’ ” Gilling said he told his players. “‘ You do that, we’ll definitely get stops and come back and win.’ ”
Yet there was that voice again in the second half: “Double- team! Doubleteam!” What’s more, the team was listening to the voice in the stands.
Eventually, Gilling’s players started listening to him instead. Chino Hills stuck to man- to- man defense and rallied to win 76- 68.
Gilling remembers an incensed Ball bolting for the locker room.
“He comes to me and says, ‘ What are you doing? What are you doing?’ I said, ‘ What do you mean? I’m trying to win the game.’
“He turns around and walks to our locker room,” Gilling said. “I said, ‘ LaVar, don’t go into the locker room.’ He continues walking. I said, ‘ LaVar, why are you trying to embarrass me?’ And he just kept walking and goes into the locker room.”
Gilling says Ball refused to leave the locker room, so Gilling told his team to follow him back to the hotel while Ball’s sons stayed behind.
When the Chino Hills team made it back to its hotel, Ball still hadn’t cooled down.
“An assistant coach comes up to me and tells me that he sees LaVar rallying the team up,” Gilling said. “I guess he got them out of their rooms on the 18th floor and tells the team that it was his system that won. That we’re doing what he says.”
This was the moment Gilling’s relationship with Ball changed for the worse, leaving the Chino Hills basketball team caught in the middle of a feud.
Gilling was an assistant at Chino Hills under Steve Baik for two years and took over when Baik left for Fairfax ( Calif.) before this season.
“Stephan was a guy who was close to the Ball family as well as me, and it was a strategic hire. Both sides ( Gilling and Ball) knew what they were getting into,” Baik told USA TODAY High School Sports.
Ball did not respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY Sports.
Two people around the program confirmed Gilling’s version of events but requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
After the confrontation in Las Vegas, Gilling noticed a change in LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball.
“So throughout the rest of the year, we had games that I would not talk to them ( LaMelo and LiAngelo),” Gilling said. “The kids looked at me different. Not all of them, but some. They understood and knew they were caught in the middle of it all.”
On March 14, Chino Hill’s season ended at 30- 3 and shy of a state title. It lost 87- 80 to Bishop Montgomery. Soon after, LaVar Ball was on a Los Angeles radio station’s morning show, and the target was Gilling. Ball blamed Gilling for the season- ending loss.
The comments compelled Gilling to defend his tumultuous first year: “I’m just trying to be positive. I’m not all that worried about what he’s saying, but I want to let the people know that it was tough throughout the whole year, starting with that one game.”
Chino Hills athletics director Jeff Schuld said he stood by his coach after Ball’s radio comments. “I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion, but we absolutely stand by Coach Gilling.” When asked if the school would side with Gilling over Ball, Schuld reiterated, “Absolutely.”
Gilling hopes to be back at Chino Hills next season. LiAngelo Ball is graduating and headed to UCLA. LaMelo Ball is a sophomore.
But Gilling’s relationship with Ball? That won’t change anytime soon.
“He wants to shoot people down for him to look good,” Gilling said. “That’s how he is, but it doesn’t affect me.”