LaVar Ball, father of NBA lottery pick hopeful Lonzo Ball of UCLA, continued his ongoing stream of thought on the pro game — this time as part of “In The Zone” podcast with Fox Sports’ Chris Broussard.
The “Ballfather” was adamant that his kids would be much better than current NBA stars’ kids, given the ever-growing expectation of them being just like their All-Star fathers.
“Here’s the thing, you gotta play the odds and the percentages,” said Ball. “There’s been a lot of great players, and all of their sons are whack.”
“Kareem’s got sons, Jordan’s got sons, Shaq’s got sons.”
— “His son is pretty good too,” said Broussard.
“His son is alright,” Ball quickly interjected. “…the monsters in the NBA, their dads wasn’t that good. They were OK, they was players, but the fact that the old Curry wasn’t no All-Star, he wasn’t cold. He could shoot the ball though. Kobe Bryant, his dad wasn’t all that, that’s why he’s such a monster.”
Ball went as far as questioning King James‘ heir to the throne, saying the pressure and expectations would be astronomical for a kid to handle coming up and resulting in disappointment regardless of their talent.
“You got LeBron, it’s gonna be so hard for his kids, cause they gonna look at them like ‘you gotta be just like your dad. And after a while that pressure starts sitting on you like ‘why do I gotta be like him, why can’t I just be me?’ And then they’re gonna be like ‘aw, you’re soft, you’re not that good.’ Because the expectation is very, very high.”
LeBron James Jr. has been known to show plenty of promise, destroying the competition in all of his highlight reels, but at the ripe age of just 12 years old, it makes a hard gamble to know just how good he is and how great he could be destined to be.
“My sons are good, they’re great,” Ball said. “But let’s say I really excelled in football and made millions of millions of dollars. Do I spent that time with them now? — No, I have to worry about the offseason and I just buy you a trainer and hope that you turn out okay. Whereas the fact that I wasn’t all that, allows me to take the time to make my boys all that.”
Ball’s thoughts come only days prior to claiming he could “kill” Michael Jordan in a game of one-on-one — a claim that questions the entire validity of pretty much anything that has come out of his mouth within the last month.