Should the Celtics be wary of Lonzo Ball’s dad?
COMMENTARY
I’m predicting it so you can prepare for it, Celtics fans. Sometime between now and the NBA Draft, Lonzo Ball’s old man is going to say something ridiculous about Larry Bird.
It’s inevitable whether or not the Ping-Pong balls have cooperated enough to put the Celtics in a position to draft LaVar Ball’s magnificently talented eldest son. In case the attention you pay to college basketball each year begins with filling out a bracket and ends a few notes into One Shining Moment, Lonzo Ball is the new Wizard of Westwood, a freshman marvel of a pass-first guard who also shoots effortlessly (if awkwardly) from a zip code beyond long range for the third-seeded UCLA Bruins.
He looks like a cross between Jason Kidd and Dennis Johnson, and plays like a college version of … man, I hate to venture into hyperbole here, but let’s just say there are some Jason Kidd and Magic Johnson tendencies. He’s a clear one-and-done with the Bruins, and is conservatively projected as a top-five pick in the June draft. When you watch Ball lead UCLA against Kent State Friday night, you could be watching the next Celtic.
Which brings us back to LaVar Ball, Larry Legend, and the former’s growing public habit for absurd commentary and comparisons regarding other NBA legends. There were a couple of basketball tidbits bouncing around my mind Tuesday that led to the realization that Mr. Ball will probably have something to say about Mr. Bird soon.
One, of course, is the constant awareness that the Celtics are going to have roughly a 65 percent shot at a top-three pick in the upcoming draft thanks to the Great Nets Heist of 2013. Another is that it was the 32nd anniversary of Bird’s iconic 60-point game against the Hawks. And the third? Well, if you missed what LaVar Ball had to say about another certain NBA legend recently, one who answers to His Airness, here’s the quote for your bewilderment, annoyance, and amusement at once.
“I would just back him in and lift him off the ground and call a foul every time he fouls me when I do a jump hook to the right or the left. He cannot stop me one-on-one. He better make every shot ’cause he can’t go around me. He’s not fast enough. And he can only make so many shots outside before I make every bucket under the rim.”
Right. He’s talking about Michael Jordan there, and not the actor. The same Michael Jordan who averaged 35 points per game for the 1987-88 Bulls, a season that coincided with LaVar Ball’s single year at Washington State, where he averaged 2.2 points per game for a 13-16 team whose superstar in that era was future NBA journeyman Brian Quinnett. LaVar Ball would post up Michael Jordan and call fouls. Good luck with that. Not even NBA referees got away with calling fouls on Michael Jordan. I’d watch a pay-per-view of 54-year-old Jordan taking him apart tomorrow.
That might not even be the most absurd statement Ball has made as his son has emerged as perhaps the most dynamic player in college basketball. He said he wants a billion dollars to sign his three sons — high-school-aged sons LiAngelo and LaMelo are also top prospects — to a shoe deal. He’s said Lonzo will play only for the Lakers. He’s said his son is better than the reigning two-time NBA MVP: “He better than Steph Curry to me. Put Steph Curry on UCLA’s team and put my boy on Golden State and see what happens.” (What would happen is Curry would average 45 points per game over the next few weeks while leading UCLA to the title while Lonzo Ball took a few minutes a game from Ian Clark.)
I suppose LaVar Ball has done a remarkable job turning his sons — and himself, to some degree — into a brand. But the question — one NBA teams, including the Celtics, will have to seriously investigate – is how much of his talk is bluster and how much foreshadows the potential for him to be a detrimental pain-in-the-neck to the organization that drafts his son.
It’s apparent that this basketball stage dad loves having the stage for himself. The Jordan talk — if he’s at all serious — suggests he’s permanently trapped in his own yearbook and cannot resist vicariously seizing upon his son’s success since he never had his own.
Yet it has to reflect back on Lonzo Ball’s parents in some way that by all accounts he is a model teammate, a low-key kid who is brilliantly unselfish on the court (he’s averaged 14.6 points, 7.7 assists, and 6.1 rebounds as a freshman). I’d love to know what Danny Ainge thinks of him (he’s not permitted to say). We’d be wise to trust his assessment either way should Ball be on the board when the Celtics are on the clock.
It’s clear his dad thinks his son is bigger than UCLA, and he’ll probably believe he’s bigger than the Celtics, too. Maybe LaVar Ball is naïve. Maybe he’s going to be a recurring nuisance. But this much is certain for now: He’s going to say many more ridiculous things before his son’s NBA destination is determined. Don’t know about you, but I’m almost curious to hear about how he’d beat Larry Bird. Almost.
