No matter what your opinion of LaVar Ball is, Lonzo Ball wants you to know he’s a good father.
The elite NBA prospect recently penned a letter to his outspoken father on The Players’ Tribune for Father’s Day, and in the letter, Lonzo Ball chronicled all the ways his father has helped him along the way to his dream.
Lonzo Ball’s letter is titled “To The Loudest Person In The Gym,” which isn’t surprising based on LaVar Ball’s media circus over the past six months. But the letter sheds light on the kind of father LaVar Ball has been to his eldest son.
“People can have whatever opinions they want about who you are as a person, but they’ll never have all the facts,” Lonzo Ball wrote. “They’ll never know you like I do. They weren’t there when you cleared out our living room so that my brothers and I would have room to play games and just be kids. They’ve never woken up to the smell of one of your signature breakfasts, which you made for us every single day when we were growing up. And they weren’t there when you were making sure that I always took care of business in the classroom and graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA. ”
He continued to describe how his father has brought him to the precipice of his NBA dream.
“When I was in middle school, I started dreaming of one day making it to the NBA. I wanted to be a point guard, just like Magic Johnson. You agreed to show me how to get there. You made your living training athletes — you still do — so I put my trust in you. And in return, you made me put in the work.
“And when I did need some motivation, you always knew just how to push my buttons. It wasn’t by making me do more reps or anything like that. It just came down to saying something simple like, ‘I hope you know that you’re not getting better.’ That was all I ever needed to hear from you to make me keep grinding.”
LaVar Ball should get a belated Father’s Day gift during the 2017 NBA Draft when Lonzo Ball is expected to be a top-five pick.
Thumbnail photo via Richard Mackson/USA TODAY Sports Images
