The Cleveland Cavaliers are in the middle of a pair of off-days before they head to Denver to take on the Nuggets tomorrow night. Today, however, the Cavs practiced at UCLA, and after practice, LeBron James was asked for a response to LaVar Ball’s comments about James’ kids having too much pressure on themselves and probably won’t live up to the hype.
“Keep my kids’ name out of your mouth, keep my family out of your mouth,” James told ESPN on Tuesday, as the Cavaliers practiced on UCLA’s campus, two days after a victory at the Lakers.
The elder Ball is the father of three young and talented basketball players: a UCLA freshman who will likely be a top-three pick in the upcoming draft as well as a senior and sophomore at Chino Hills High School.
Ball has been trending over the last couple of weeks for his outlandish comments regarding his sons, former NBA players, and current NBA players. The talked-about comments made by Ball came when he went on the “In The Zone” podcast with Fox Sports’ Chris Broussard a couple weeks ago.
“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 responded. “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 continued on, saying that it’s going to be hard for LeBron’s kids to survive and live up to the pressure of being the sons of James.
“You’ve 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,’ said Ball. “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.”
This isn’t even Ball’s craziest comment to the media. He went on record as saying he would “kill Michael Jordan one-on-one” and that his son is better than Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry.
James closed out the topic with a warning for Ball, making certain to let him know to keep his family out of the discussion.
“He can talk all about his brand, talk about his sons, talk about basketball, talk about me,” James told ESPN. “But keep my family out of this.
“This is dad to dad. It’s a problem now.”
