Is LaVar Ball A Bad Sports Parent?

There have been a lot of famous and infamous sports parents, but I can’t remember anyone quite like LaVar Ball of Chino Hills, Calif. His ambitions for his three sons are not only to become NBA stars, but also to be established brands by the time they turned pro.

So far, the plan is working. One son, Lonzo, is a freshman at UCLA and expected to be a lottery pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Middle son LiAngelo, a high school senior, has committed to play at the same school next year, and youngest son LaMelo, a sophomore who also has committed to UCLA, is on his way to stardom — you might have heard about his recent 92-point game.

As tales of his son’s basketball exploits bounce all over the Internet, LaVar is already exploiting their fame through his Big Baller Brand (“inspired by” his sons, thus allowing it to escape NCAA scrutiny), and reality-show like videos such as “Christmas Day with the Ball Brothers.” (Oh, and there also will be a Ball Brothers segment, called “Ball or Fall,” on the March 12 ESPN SportsCenter.)

If LaVar Ball has his way, this will top the popularity of the Star Wars Holiday Special.

If I needed more evidence of LaVar Ball and his sons’ omniscience, I found it at home. My 14-year-old son doesn’t share excitement over Dwyane Wade, the local pro star with the Bulls that our Chicago-area high school produced. He tells me about Chino Hills High and his favorite Ball brother, LiAngelo. (That is, when he’s not talking about his favorite NBA team, the Philadelphia 76ers, and how he really, really hopes they will take Lonzo Ball in next year’s draft.)

Surprisingly, Ballervisions, the group that put this video together, has no affiliation with LaVar Ball.

Recently I was on a sports talk radio station in Orlando , Fla., and was asked this question: is LaVar Ball a bad sports parent for being so involved in steering and promoting his kids? My answer then, and now, is: I’m not sure. So far, it appears to be working for them, so I’m not sure all of us on the sidelines can yet weigh in with a judgement.

First, let me say that even in the crazy sports parent there exists a laudable parental instinct: to love their child, to protect them from harm, and to help them succeed at life. I have yet to meet even the most bat-guano insane sports parent who was explicitly out to harm his or her child. And I even include the parents in the documentary “Trophy Kids,” the one about incredibly pushy sports moms and dads, which I reviewed as being a “horror movie.”

There are definitely elements to LaVar Ball that makes you scratch you head and wonder. This 2016 Los Angeles Magazine piece shares the Ball origin story, where LaVar’s original meeting with the woman who became his wife sound more like an introduction on a Kentucky thoroughbred ranch:

Many basketball dads get stars in their eyes only when their eighth grader starts draining jump shots. But LaVar, who grew up in South L.A. and went to Washington State on a basketball scholarship before transferring to Cal State Los Angeles, was preparing for this moment before his sons were even born.

When he first spotted his future wife, Tina, at Cal State, he was smitten not just by her blond hair and blue eyes but by what a basketball scout would call her “length”—she stands precisely six feet . Sitting with Tina in the family’s kitchen one quiet afternoon, LaVar recounts their origin story. “I see this tall girl, very attractive, walking down a hallway and I go, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do, but we’re gonna be doing something!’ ” he says with a roaring laugh. “Once that was in her head, I had her. I picked a big girl who was beautiful. A big stallion!”

Given they are still married, I think we can presume LaVar found things about Tina beyond her length to love. Still, as LaVar’s plan has come to fruition, there is another physical attribute that has given some pause: LaVar’s mouth.

Like when in February LaVar declared Lonzo will be better than Stephen Curry, the reigning two-time NBA MVP, a comment that came not long after he said the NBA would be easier for Lonzo than UCLA. Then LaVar followed that up by declaring Lonzo will play for the hometown Lakers, thus disappointing my son (though LaVar tried to walk that comment back fairly quickly after he said it). Oh, and then LaVar followed THAT by declaring his sons would have a branding power comparable to Michael Jordan at Nike, and that Lonzo would be the first player drafted under his own brand (Big Baller, I presume.) Then, of course, there’s the requisite criticism of the high school coach, which is pretty standard sports-parent fare.

Beyond having the likes of Charles Barkley telling LaVar Ball shut his mouth (ironic in Barkley’s case, really), all this gum-flapping has raised the question of whether Lonzo’s draft position will be affected by NBA general managers’ desire to not have to hear LaVar on the other end of a phone. Right now the answer is, likely it won’t, but… (from The Sporting News):

“It doesn’t help, all this stuff with his father,” one general manager told Sporting News. “I don’t know what is gained for the kid by putting that much pressure on him. Nobody from the league has been meeting with (Lonzo Ball) or anything, but that is going to be another thing to look at when it comes to due diligence before the draft. How does he handle his dad, is it just something he laughs about, or is it real pressure on him?”

So far, it doesn’t appear any of the three boys’ performances are affected negatively by LaVar. A reason for that is what might make you think LaVar is actually a good sports parent — he has been protective of his sons in their development. In a Los Angeles basketball scene notorious for basketball transfers and travel-team exploitation, LaVar didn’t start his sons on the travel team circuit until after Lonzo completed eighth grade — and a few years later he was on a team LaVar, not liking what he saw on the AAU circuit, started that included all three Ball boys.

And rather than have his sons transfer to whatever L.A. power would have them, they all have played at their neighborhood school, Chino Hills, not known previously as a basketball school. The Ball brothers all have good grades in school, and by all accounts appear to be decent people.

So does LaVar Ball’s mouth and shameless self-promotion of his sons make him a bad sports parents, or does his protectiveness and careful attention make him a good sports parent? The answer, I think, is that it’s not that cut and dried. All of this is working for LaVar and his family, though I’m sure there are those who will say, check back in 20 years to really find out if this was a good thing. And I feel like LaVar is right to keep a tight hold on his kids and not turn them over to the youth-basketball sharks, especially when he has the leverage that comes from his sons’ abilities. His is the best balancing act I’ve seen in youth sports since Ron Harper, Bryce’s dad.

However, I would caution you as a parent not to try to follow LaVar’s grand plan. There is still a lot of luck involved, right down to, as LaVar has explained, genetics. Luck such as, none of the Ball boys has yet torn up a knee.

Instead, for the rest of us, I’ll go back to my usual advice to sports parents. First, nothing matters if your child isn’t having fun. Second, if your child has a chance at a scholarship and pro career, people will likely tell you that without prompting — so spending money on training guarantees you nothing. And third, childhood is about trying different things so the child can discover his or her own interests. That doesn’t guarantee you a path to the NBA, but it does give you a much better shot of a well-adjusted child who might be motivated to, with gratitude, take care of you in your dotage.