LaVar Ball is one of those annoying sports dads who lives vicariously through their more talented children.
Ball, 48, is the father of UCLA Bruins freshman star Lonzo Ball (pictured above) and Chino Hills (Calif.) High School standouts LiAngelo Ball and LaMelo Ball, a sophomore who recently scored 92 points in one game.
Lonzo Ball not embarrassed by father's remarks. pic.twitter.com/FpTTjzX88V
— ?ASAP Sports News? (@ASAP_SportsNews) March 9, 2017
LaVar Ball, who averaged 2 points a game in college, groomed his 3 biracial sons to be NBA superstars from birth.
“I told them, ‘Somebody has to be better than Michael Jordan. Why not you?'”
Ball generates headlines daily by comparing himself and his sons to every past and present NBA star, including Jordan, Steph Curry, Charles Barkley, and now LeBron James.
In a recent interview, Ball suggested LeBron is too focused on his own career to cultivate his sons’ basketball skills. He said LeBron hires a trainer for his sons, “Whereas the fact that I wasn’t all that, allows me to take the time to make my boys all that.
LeBron took offense at Ball’s remarks.
In a statement to ESPN, LeBron said:
“Keep my kids’ name out of your mouth, keep my family out of your mouth. This is dad to dad. It’s a problem now.”
Family Comes First. #BallFamily pic.twitter.com/2uTLIYDvae
— Big Baller Brand (@bigballerbrand) February 7, 2017
Ball is so rigidly defiant that, according to a family member, he refuses to let his sons see their mother, Tina Ball, who had a stroke on Feb. 21. She is still in a hospital recovering from brain surgery.
“Pathetic!” said the family member, who told Armchair All Americans that Ball visits his wife for an hour a few days a week. But his sons are forbidden to see her.
“The Ball boys are not allowed to see their mother, Lavar is afraid it will take away from their game(s)…. Notice, she is not at any games, she is not at work, and she is not at home. Someone needs to ask the question, where is Tina? She is severely disabled and paralyzed on right side…”
In a post game press conference following UCLA’s victory over Kent State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, a reporter asked Lonzo Ball about his mother.
Lonzo, ever mindful of his dad’s master plan for him and his brothers, declined to respond.
