LaVar Ball never wanted his kids to be normal college basketball players. He ensured that early in Lonzo’s career at UCLA by shouting all sorts of stuff: Lonzo is better than Steph Curry, Lonzo was weighed down by unathletic white guys, and that he himself could beat Michael Jordan one-on-one.
The Ball family got exactly what it wanted out of college basketball
LaVar Ball played UCLA for all it was worth.
Photo by Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images for Crosswalk Productions
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
America judged every word and laughed at most of them, but it also kept paying attention. That set the stage for what happened on Monday: LaVar Ball again willing the news cycle into existence by withdrawing middle child LiAngelo from UCLA and promising he could train his son for the NBA better than Steve Alford and the Bruins ever could.
Now LiAngelo and his far-more-famous younger brother LaMelo are looking to turn pro overseas and the news cycle is already set up for its next round of Ball family updates. No one has ever tested the idea that all publicity is good publicity quite like this family.
My colleague Mike Rutherford wrote a compelling argument that UCLA got exactly what it wanted out of the Ball family. Meaning: The Bruins enjoyed one great season from Lonzo that helped make the program cool again, then were able to get out from underneath the long shadow of LaVar. Well played, Bruins.
It’s likely that the opposite is also true.
LaVar Ball played UCLA for all it was worth
For all of its flaws, college basketball still works as an incredible marketing tool. LaVar Ball was aware of this and leveraged it into international notoriety for his family.
No one knew who LaVar Ball was before Lonzo turned into a sensation and established himself as a top NBA draft pick. The truth is that Lonzo was always the real prize for Alford and the Bruins; the program took LiAngelo and LaMelo in the first place just to get Lonzo. Consider everything that’s happened since:
Stealing sunglasses in China was the best thing that ever happened to LiAngelo Ball
Basketball people knew that LiAngelo was never half as talented as his older brother. He entered UCLA as the No. 233 recruit in his class according to 247 Sports. He should have been a four-year player at a mid-major school, not someone making headlines worldwide.
It turns out that LiAngleo’s decision to steal sunglasses from a store in China was probably the best possible scenario for the Balls. It got the President of United States tweeting about the Ball family every morning and earned LaVar multiple spots on CNN. LiAngelo was supposed to be the black sheep of the family, talent-wise. Instead he made them more famous than ever.
Do you really think being the ninth man at UCLA this year would have been a more preferable outcome for the Balls? Hardly.
LaMelo Ball is more famous than most NBA players
LaMelo Ball has three million Instagram followers. He had Steph Curry mimicking his highlights last year. It’s possible he’s the most famous high school basketball player of all time; yes, ahead of even LeBron James. This is just another example of LaVar’s vision in action.
LaVar put LaMelo in the news cycle when he helped set up the game against Zion Williamson that almost a million people watched. He did it again when he gave LaMelo his own signature shoe, NCAA eligibility concerns be damned. Then he pulled LaMelo out of high school completely and vowed to homeschool him while preparing for the 2020 NBA draft.
LaMelo is considered a legitimate five-star recruit. ESPN has him ranked as the No. 7 player in the class of 2019. There’s also no guarantee he turns into half the player Lonzo is. By all accounts, LaMelo is a reckless gunner with no concern for offensive efficiency. His body isn’t nearly as mature as the rest of his five-star peers. He may be talented, but he still has a long way to go.
By pulling LaMelo out of high school and LiAngelo out of UCLA, LaVar Ball gave his sons exposure while saving them from getting exposed. Now no one will realize that LiAngelo was always more fit for Long Beach State than UCLA. Now LaMelo won’t be on a constantly looping internet clip every time a high school player gets the best of him.
Instead, the Ball family will tour the world one pop-up shop at a time. They will make more shoes. They will probably find a way to rile up Donald Trump again.
This is not the kind of stuff that happens to normal college basketball players. Turns out that was never the plan in the first place for the Balls.
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