LaVar Ball has another message for the Lakers: If you want to keep Lonzo, you’ll need to take his brothers, too.
The outspoken, media-seeking father of the rookie point guard is adamant about seeing Lonzo’s lesser-talented younger brothers, LiAngelo and LaMelo, join him in the NBA, and seems willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.
“I want all three boys to play for the Lakers,” LaVar told Lithuanian journalist Donatas Urbonas. “But if that does not happen, I’m telling you the story [of] what’s gonna happen first. If they don’t take Gelo this year, I bring back Gelo here [in Lithuania], to play with Melo for two years. Lonzo will be on his third year, and I [will] let every NBA team know that Lonzo is not going to re-sign with the Lakers, but will go to any team that will take all of my three boys. That’s my plan.”
LiAngelo and LaMelo are currently playing for Prienu Vytautas in the Lithuanian League (LKL). The team just snapped a nine-game losing streak. While LaMelo, a 16-year-old would-be high school junior, was considered a high-major prospect back home, LiAngelo was not. Unranked and rated as more of a mid-major player, he was set to come off the bench for UCLA this year, before being arrested for shoplifting in China. LiAngelo was suspended, and LaVar yanked him out of school.
One of many issues with LaVar’s plan is Lonzo won’t be a free agent for three more seasons after this, when he would be a restricted free agent. But LaVar, who in January said Lakers coach Luke Walton had lost the team, hasn’t always dealt in reality. In the interview, LaVar went on to say Lonzo has been at his best when playing with his brothers. Of course, that was at the high school level, not the NBA. But LaVar doesn’t need logic to formulate this silly plan, which, if executed, would be more likely to get Lonzo out of the league than his brothers in.
“We don’t have to go [to] any draft,” LaVar said. “Just sign [them] in free agency. You don’t have to give Gelo $15 million. … So now you win championship after championship on [the] fact my boys will never leave. That’s what I mean, championship, championship, championship.
“But what’s better than three Ball boys together? The Big Three. That’s the original Big Three.”
In his delusional mind, anyway.