LaVar Ball has been giving his opinion on anything — and everything– in the world of basketball of late.
And the outspoken father of UCLA star Lonzo Ball finally crossed someone that he probably shouldn’t have — Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James.
James fired a warning shot at the loud-mouthed Ball on Tuesday after Cavaliers practice, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
“Keep my kids’ name out of your mouth, keep my family out of your mouth,” James said, per McMenamin. “This is dad to dad. It’s a problem now.”
Ball recently went on “In The Zone with Chris Broussard” and gave his hot take on why the children of star athletes usually are less successful than their parents. Among the examples that Ball gave was 12-year-old LeBron James Jr., who currently has standing verbal offers from Duke and Kentucky.
“The monsters in the NBA, their dads wasn’t that good,” Ball said, as transcribed by McMenamin. “They were OK, they was players, but the fact that the old (Dell) 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.
“You got LeBron, it’s going to be hard for his kids because they are going to look at them like, ‘You got to be just like your dad.’ And after a while, that pressure starts sitting on you like, ‘Why do I got to be just like him? What can’t I just be me?’ And then they are going to be like, ‘Aw, you’re soft, you’re not that good.’ Because the expectation is very, very high.”
That obviously didn’t sit well with James, who told ESPN exactly what Ball can and can’t talk about.
“He can talk all about his brand, talk about his sons, talk about basketball, talk about me,” James said. “But keep my family out of this.”
And if Ball wants that supposed $1 billion marketing contract for his sons, he might not want to upset Nike’s marquee athlete.
Thumbnail photo via Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports Images
