LaVar Ball is working his way back into the headlines.
The obnoxious father of Los Angeles Lakers rookie point guard Lonzo Ball has been mostly quiet since he claimed the Lakers didn’t like playing for head coach Luke Walton, as he’s been in Lithuania where his other sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo, are playing professionally.
Lonzo has missed the past 13 games with a sprained knee, and the Lakers have quietly found a groove in his absence, so LaVar felt the need to spark up controversy once again, or at least prove he doesn’t understand how contracts work in an interview with Lithuanian journalist Donatas Urbonas.
LaVar apparently is still harping on his master plan to get all three sons on the Lakers, and he threatened L.A. with an absurd ultimatum if they didn’t draft or eventually sign LiAngelo and LaMelo.
LaVar Ball on his big plan how he's going to bring Lonzo, Melo and Gelo to one NBA team: “Lonzo will be on his 3rd year and I want let every NBA team know, that Lonzo is not going to resign with the Lakers, but will go to any team, that will take all of my three boys.” pic.twitter.com/GErdXjraYU
— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) February 12, 2018
So this is LaVar’s master plan?
First of all, the Lakers own a club option on Lonzo’s contact for the 2020-21 season, when LaVar says all of this will go down. L.A. also will be able to match any offer made to Lonzo in restricted free agency in 2021.
There’s also zero reason the budding star would torpedo his NBA career in order to play on the same team with either of his brothers, one of whom is a fringe NBA prospect while the other has glaring holes in his game, albeit at age 16.
LaVar probably is just worried about the arrival of Isaiah Thomas, who was stellar in his Lakers debut. Or maybe he’s finally getting bored in Lithuania.