LaVar Ball’s outbursts put Lakers, league in tough spot

Rookie’s father not easy to ignore, for club or media.

In a strange way LaVar Ball’s big mouth may have actually bought Luke Walton more time.

If the Lakers are considering a coaching change — and from all indications they are not — dismissing Walton now would create the perception that club President Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka are taking orders from the world’s most annoying helicopter parent. And that’s certainly not the case.

But Johnson and Pelinka, the Lakers’ top basketball executives, find themselves in an awkward position because they have nothing to gain by commenting publicly about LaVar’s claim over the weekend that Walton has lost the locker room.

It’s a sensitive area because LaVar is a parent of a Lakers rookie, Lonzo Ball, and by responding to LaVar’s nonsense the team only legitimizes and empowers him. So they ignore LaVar and hope this blows over quickly. It’s understandable, especially since it was reported last month that Lakers management met with LaVar and asked him nicely to stop criticizing the coaching staff. This latest salvo from Lithuania just shows that the Lakers are powerless to censor Lonzo Ball’s dad. Lonzo probably could and maybe he eventually will but Lonzo is only 20 and he’s not going to publicly throw his father under the bus. Instead, Lonzo attempts to play it down the middle by saying Sunday, “I’ll play for anybody” without realizing that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for the current head coach.

The Lakers are a mess right now, with LaVar turning it into a circus and the league is clearly getting tired of it. Mavs coach Rick Carlisle, who is also the head of the National

Basketball Coaches Association, criticized ESPN for the story in question and saying “part of that partnership is that the coaches do a lot of things to help (ESPN) with access, interviews. In exchange for that, they should back up the coaches.”

There is even a report that several unnamed coaches want their media relations departments to pull the credentials of any media member who interviews LaVar. That’s extreme and it’s hard to imagine the NBA, which prides itself on being the most progressive sports league in the country, would condone this form of censorship.

Privately, the league wants what Carlisle wants: ignore LaVar. But the NBA is also an entertainment business and some actually enjoy LaVar’s brash comments. And there are others who are exhausted by LaVar at this point (Count me in the latter category).

But don’t fool yourself into thinking LaVar’s comments about Walton and the struggling Lakers, who last Sunday snapped a nine-game losing streak, isn’t a story. Walton’s job security has been for nearly two weeks. On Dec.

28, the team held a meeting to air its concerns and a few days later rookie Kyle Kuzma accused the team of quitting. So when the father of the starting point guard says the team has quit on the coach it doesn’t take Woodward and Bernstein to assume that dad may be parroting what his son told him.

Nearly 20 years ago, the wife of former Lakers forward Glen Rice criticized Phil Jackson and that became a story during the NBA playoffs. It also produced a great line because Rice’s wife at the time was originally from Cuba. One Los Angeles writer called it “The Cuban Missus Crisis.” Classic.

Closer to home, Kristaps Porzingis’ brother, Janis, found himself in the news cycle two months ago when he was quoted in a Latvian magazine explaining why Kristaps skipped his exit meeting with the Knicks. So let’s not pretend that family members of players are never quoted. LaVar isn’t the first. He won’t be the last.

If former NBA player Larry Nance, the father of Lakers forward Larry Nance Jr., said Luke Walton lost the locker room that would be a story. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to read it. You don’t even have to believe it. But it’s a story. That’s up to the consumer to decide, not Rick Carlisle or the NBCA.

LaVar seems to take pride in being an overbearing loudmouth and salesman. We know his routine. It’s never his fault or the fault of his three sons. It’s the school college high coach, the teammates, Chinese police, President Trump and now Luke Walton.

Chasing him for a sound bite is low hanging fruit in the journalism world. That’s the point Carlisle was trying to make. And perhaps those subtle threats and questions about integrity will make a lot of reporters think twice about sticking a microphone in LaVar’s face.

But remember, it only takes one. And LaVar isn’t about to stop talking any time soon.

ALIUS KOROLIOVAS / GETTY IMAGES LaVar Ball, father of rookie Lonzo Ball, created a stir recently by saying the Lakers had quit on coach Luke Walton, which club management tried to ignore, but the story has been picked up by the media.