Lonzo Ball has played seven seasons in the NBA, but his career hasn’t panned out how the second overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft likely envisioned it.
Ball, currently an unsigned free agent, regrets how much control his father, Lavar, had early in his career.
Ball was an All-American out of UCLA, and his bombastic father publicly declared that he would be a Laker prior to the draft. The Lakers then selected him No. 2 overall in 2017.
“I think he had a huge influence on it, bro,” Ball said of Lavar’s involvement on the “Curious Mike” podcast with Michael Porter Jr. “To be honest… I think he damn near made it to where they had to pick me. Really, to a point, I really do feel like that.”
The Lakers passed on drafting Jayson Tatum, who went No. 3 to the Boston Celtics that year. Fans have not forgotten the Lakers missing out on Tatum, but the team eventually used Ball along with Brandon Ingram as key assets in the trade that brought Anthony Davis to LA.
Ball’s two seasons with the Lakers were tainted by Lavar’s antics, including public criticism of then-head coach Luke Walton.
The guard — older brother to LiAngelo and recently traded All-Star point guard LaMelo — was also forced to wear basketball shoes from Lavar’s Big Baller Brand’s, which Lonzo felt were not ready to be used for competitive play.
“It wasn’t a basketball shoe, bro. It wasn’t ready to be used. So I tried to play in it, but they would rip and pop out like every quarter,” Ball said on Porter’s podcast.
“DMo [Darren Moore, Ball’s manager] had backup shoes in his backpack that he would give me right over the bench if they would blow out. I’m like, ‘I can’t play like this, bro.’ And right when I changed my shoes, I started playing great again.
“I didn’t like the shoes. I addressed it. I didn’t like the shoes. But then we would get into an argument and it would be like, damn, if you don’t wear the shoes, then you going against the family type s–t.”
Ball suggested the shoes might have played a role in his early knee injuries, which have been irreversible setbacks throughout his NBA career.
“I literally was just hooping and following my pops, listening to my pops…I was just doing what I was told really,” Ball said. “I guess that would be my one regret, like taking control of my career earlier.
“The way I was raised was like a blessing and a curse.”
