First things first: LaVar Ball won.
Whatever the other truth may be, no matter what injury may be inflicted upon my two sons, and what may be inflicted upon them in the months and years to come, I will remain cocky and confident. The bold matriarch who appeared to be sucking all the oxygen out of every room of basketball over five years ago was right for his kids.
They were, and still may be, real. And they got paid for it. And that alone means their father did exactly what a father should have done, no matter what you felt about him or his message. He succeeded in leading his sons to great success.
LaMelo Ball and Lonzo Ball on the news Lately, CBS Sports has been talking about a bold father who has feuded with the media, repeatedly asserted the greatness of his teenage sons, challenged various all-time greats, and irritated die-hard fans. I was interested in whether there was some introspection or new perspective, so I interviewed their fathers. He turned basketball officials, confidence and rants into entertainment gold.
And I see some introspection for the rest of us as well. LaVar won because his kids won.
Yes, the Charlotte Hornets shut down LaMelo Ball last week for the rest of the season. But his ankle injury, and the other injuries that have kept him out of action for four years in the NBA, don't void the five-year contract he signed last summer worth as much as $260 million.
Even if he only played a total of 58 games between this season and last season, he's still a career 20/6/7 player.
Even though his older brother, Lonzo, hasn't played an actual game in over two years, he still has a player option remaining on his contract this summer and will be paid $80 million by the end of his contract.
“Well, mentally, they had a strong mindset,” Lover says. “They're Ball. So they're going to come back. They're going to rehab. They're going to do their job.”
Let's hope so. Lonzo and LaMelo could still make a difference in this league, albeit in vastly different ways. And as you can imagine, we think LaVar will come back better than ever, but it's also worth listening to. He had been right about them before.
There's a lot of LaVar you know in our conversation. It's like, “I'm always right. I hate being right all the time, but that's the reality.” Or he could just slip into the shoes Melo is currently wearing and take a shot. Or the 15 minutes or so of general bravado that marked LaVar's fame between Lonzo being drafted second overall in 2017 and LaMelo being drafted third overall in 2020.
But there's also the final fact that his children have lives and careers that most people can't dream of. And his fatherly pride still continues to explode, even though the rest of him – likeable, funny, direct, to the point – has been toned down a bit. ing.
a little bit.
“As long as my boys can take care of themselves and do what they're supposed to do and do what they love for as long as possible, that's great,” he says. “A lot of people don't get this opportunity. I look at it from a different perspective, which is: A) Even if I do some conditioning and come back, at least I can do what I want to do. is.”
Is it because they have a great life anyway?
“You’re right, you’re right, you’re right – but make a living.”
Do you feel like you won?
“Oh, yeah,” he says. “Well, let me tell you this: As parents, that's what you do to your kids. At the end of the day, when we're gone, we want our kids to take care of themselves. I think, as long as the kids are capable of that, so if you're not going to educate them, you're going to have to trade them.
“I gave my sons a deal: I would take care of them for life, playing basketball,” he says. “Now, if they're not going to be 6'6″ or 6'7” tall and long and athletic, you better get them into that school. Read and be able to read.”
Want more of Bill Reiter and LaVar Ball's conversation? Check out the Beyond the Arc podcast, CBS Sports' daily NBA show.
Not that LaVar loves every aspect of his children's careers.
He chalks up the injury to the fact that his sons are being trained by NBA people who don't know what they're doing on their behalf.
“They say, oh, Mr. Lover, you trained the boys too hard and they got hurt,” he says. “No, the reason they hurt is because they got away from me. And they start doing these poop workouts because if you keep them running hills, they keep that power and that strength. But you start to deal with doing light exercise with rubber bands on, and of course your body starts to break down.”
He knows more about this. And with the “BBB” shirt he's wearing, there's room for a subtle plug that his Big Baller brand is still making a mark.
“Have they been trained hard enough? No, no, they haven't,” he says. “Because you condition your body to run and jump. You have to condition your legs. So I always take my boys to hilly areas and spend their whole lives in hilly areas. I'm running hard, and when I get on it, I'll run like a deer.'' “I'm on that court, so I won't get hurt.'' There's a lot to do with those worn-out shoes that Melo wears.'' The shoe is not made to fit him, so he keeps tweaking his ankle every time.''
He said Lonzo and LaMelo will be back next season and ready to continue their success.
And they were successful in a purely basketball sense. At least when they were with us. Melo's excellence is evident when available. But Lonzo also brought something special, even if it's been a long time since we all saw it. His talent for basketball goes unnoticed.
When he went down with the injury two years ago, the Chicago Bulls were leading the Eastern Conference at the halfway point. They haven't been much better since then. And it was hard to imagine at the time that he might have been a key element in the strange alchemy that made this Bulls team so good at the time.
Lonzo only played in 35 games for the Bulls, but in that time the Bulls went 22-13.
“Lonzo's actions make those around him better,” LaVar said. “He's been like that all his life. So when people were thinking this and that, 'Oh, he's going to the Bulls, and he's the fourth option,' that's not going into his head. .
“He made Zach LaVine better. He made DeMar DeRozan better. (Nikola) Vucevic. All of them. And now they see what happens when they take him out of the puzzle.”
There are many ways to go to a ball if you feel like it. The Bulls and Hornets wasted a lot of money on two star prospects who may not be worth the investment. The father's grand words back then are completely unreliable compared to the harsh reality of his sons' current situation. etc.
But that misses the point, at least as LaVar Ball thinks. His job was not to create basketball stars for the rest of the population, but to ensure their basketball stardom for the rest of their lives.
Everything else? The hope that they can get back into the game and be durable and stay on the floor could be what we thought LaVar was selling when they first entered the league, right? Or? That's all a bonus.
That's why Mr. Lover looks dumbfounded when I ask him if he's ever had even a moment of doubt or worry about his sons' future – or maybe he's just talking to someone stupid. –.
“No, never.”
Isn't it just once?
“Not just once.”
why?
“Because if I died tomorrow, my son would be fine,” he says later.
