Tag: Ball in the Family

LiAngelo Ball Signs with Los Angeles…in the League LaVar Ball Started

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Yahoo – After working out with a number of NBA teams ahead of the 2018 NBA draft, LiAngelo Ball has found a home — in the Junior Ball Association. Per a release sent Monday, LiAngelo Ball will indeed play in the league started by his dad, LaVar Ball. He will also play on the Los Angeles Ballers team with his brother, LaMelo.

I would be doing a disservice to our fans if I didn’t chime in on the latest Ball family news. To be honest, I’ve fallen off on my viewership of Ball in the Family, which ain’t terrible. The show does a good job of painting LaVar as a guy that just wants the best for his family at all costs more so than the overbearing asshole we see popping off in the media piggybacking off his son’s fame. Thats probablyyy the exact intent of the show though so I won’t be putting LaVar into the parenting hall of fame or anything, but its worth checking out. Plus it is produced by Bunim and Murray so if you’ve watched just about any reality TV show in the past 20 years then you’ll feel oddly at home watching this on Facebook of all places.

Now with all the niceties out of the way, lets get to the latest Ball family news. Remember when LaVar Ball screamed from the rooftop that there should be a league where young guys can play and develop their game while also getting paid, without having to go to places like, oh ya know, motherfucking Lithuania?? Well he actually went and made that league; the Junior Ball Association. We actually blogged about this a while back and as we said, its not the worst idea.

“The modern day Vince McMahon just continues to roll along with his idea du jour; an alternative basketball league to compete with the NCAA. It’s geared at top players who don’t want to go to college, or ya know shit holes like Lithuania. Ya think LaMelo and LiAngelo might prefer playing in this league rather than taking trains and ferrys to Baltic League games in Kiev?

I gotta admit, this guy is COCKY, and it is contagious. Because on its face, its not a bad idea. If the NBA is so stuck on its “One and Done” rule (which it may actually get rid of sooner than later) then whats the point of a guy going to Duke for 8 months and showing up to a handful of classes posing as a college student like he’s in Never Been Kissed?”

With that being said LiAngelo Ball signing with and getting paid to play in the JBA, after failing to get drafted in the NBA or latch on with a summer league team, is downright laughable.

“At age 19, Ball was not selected in the 2018 NBA draft, nor did he sign on with an NBA Summer League team. Weeks ago, in an interview with NiceKicks.com, Ball said he was not going to play in the JBA. “I feel like that’s taking a step back for me,” he said June 27 to Nice Kicks. “If I have to play in the G-League then that’s what it’s going to be. I’m not running away from the work.”

Whoops.

This was to be expected as Woj said he had “no shot” of getting drafted and literally quoted GMs as laughing about the thought. Ouch.

So now we turn to the league that dad started. For anyone buried in student loans who has friends or coworkers that are buying houses and leasing out condos they’ve bought because they came from a well off family — this shit has to drive you insane.

LiAngelo seems like a nice enough dude besides the whole nearly starting World War III between the US and China because he needed to shoplift some fresh shades. Still to this day, avoiding an international incident after all that is DT45’s greatest accomplishment.

But I just cannot see this news without laughing at how soft it comes off. Just think about every rich kid you know, its hard to truly respect someone that has had it that easy.
Imagine you couldn’t get a job at the company you wanted to work for so your dad just up and makes a company for you to work at and get paid? That sounds like something out of a sitcom.

Like Ray Romano’s kid doesn’t make the baseball team so Ray and Robert start their own team and put all their own money into it. Sure, Debra would probably bitch and moan about it for the whole 22 minutes, but Ray doesn’t give a shit about Debra, hasn’t for years. Hilarity ensues.

But hey, play the hand your dealt I guess. Lonzo was a legit NCAA stud and top NBA draft pick. LiAngelo probably only got recruited to play at UCLA because of his brother. Meanwhile, the youngest of the three, LaMelo, has some potential to make the NBA. So if you’re the middle brother who’s stuck in no mans land, might as well take dad’s money, play ball in Los Angeles, all while still getting to put “Professional Athlete” on your LinkedIn page.

I Don’t Blame LeBron for Joining the Lakers, But How Will NBA History Remember Him?

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LeBron James is the latest superstar athlete to pack up and head for Hollywood to play for the Lakers. After years of hating on LeBron I have to admit, I don’t really blame him for this one. Three out of the last four years the Cavs just did not have enough firepower to beat the all-world Golden State Warriors. Part of that is his own fault for forcing the team to be built in his image, long term planning be damned, but all that aside the writing was on the wall. The Cavs were not getting any better so he could play out his days in Cleveland due to a sense of guilt for how he left his hometown high and dry for Miami all those years ago. Or he could go put a bow on his career and build a media empire while playing for the Showtime Lakers and learn from the Magic 8-ball himself.

After winning a title for those lovable losers in Cleveland, LeBron was playing with house money and he knew it. The fans couldn’t possibly turn on him again, especially after getting the Cavs to the finals the last 4 years in a row. So unless the Cavs somehow landed Kawhi or Paul George, which was never going to happen, LeBron had one foot out the door as soon as that championship parade was over.

Hey, I totally get the desire to just live somewhere that you like. I’m from Boston, born and bred, but I want to blow my brains out from the months of November to March. If it wasn’t for the Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics to get me through the miserable nuclear winters in this city I would have packed my bags and moved years ago.

So for a guy in his 30s with 3 kids who’s already accomplished just about everything in the league, I totally get wanting to go take a new job in a city thats 70 degrees every day of the year. Plus you know LeBron wants to make more movies, whether its the oft rumored Space Jam 2 or if its for more roles like his cameo in Trainwreck where I found myself liking LeBron more than I care to admit.

For LeBron he gets the benefits of both worlds, he’s now able to really start building the media empire he clearly wants to build and he gets to play for the Los Angeles Lakers who *could* be challenging for a championship as early as next year because they fall ass backwards into top free agents all the time. This probably isn’t exactly what Kobe had in mind when he told LeBron to just “figure it out” in order to win titles.

This move doesn’t seem like ring chasing though. The Lakers are fine, but barring some monster moves they aren’t true title contenders. Did the Warriors beat the will to win out of LeBron? Has he come to realize he probably isn’t going to be able to top Michael Jordan’s six rings without a hurricane wiping out the Bay Area? Maybe thats why, as Chris Mannix put it, winning seems to now be taking a back seat.

“Is James, 33, really willing to punt on the upcoming season in the hopes of success in the next one? Seems like it. L.A. is a fantastic business decision and clearly one with which his family was comfortable. But basketball? Finding his way to Houston, a 65-win team that had the Warriors on the ropes last season, would have been a basketball decision. The Sixers, a team with a pair of elite young franchise players already on board, would have been a basketball decision.

Boston, Denver, Golden State … those would have been basketball decisions.

The Lakers are about something else.”

If nothing else though, this team is going to be entertaining as fuck. For his first move as the new GM of the Lakers, LeBron signed Lance Stephenson.

Yup that guy.

For his second move he signed the wildly entertaining Javale McGee.

And then of course to top it all off, don’t forget the first family of LA, the patriarch of which is still very much embedded in this team.

I am legitimately excited for LaVar to complain on an episode of Ball in the Family (which shockingly ain’t half bad) that LeBron isn’t getting his son the ball enough. Skip Bayless literally may croak at his desk.

The only real knock on this whole situation though is where does it ultimately leave LeBron’s legacy? Does he get remembered as the guy who brought a championship to long suffering Cleveland? The guy who smoked his hometown with The Decision and built the NBA’s first real Super Team? Or is he remembered as a nomad just jumping around from team to team picking out the situation that suited him best at the time?

To be honest, I think when we look back in 20 years its probably going to be mostly the last one, but not in a negative way. He’ll be looked at as a guy ahead of his time because sure LeBron was the first one to orchestrate the construction of his own Super Team, but we’ve seen it time and time again in the years since. James Harden and CP3 working their way to the Rockets to play together. Kevin Durant heading for greener pastures to chase rings with the Warriors. LeBron was the first one to do it.

He may ultimately be revered as the guy that taught his peers the players have the power, not the owners. If you’re good enough you can leverage your talent to shape a team the way you see fit. LeBron did this with his 1+1 contracts, basically keeping his team on its toes for years (for better or worse) so they couldn’t just take a year off, not spend enough, or punt on a free agent because LeBron could just threaten to opt out and leave. He brought the power back to the players.

For all his dominance, his “must watchability,” his highs, his lows, LeBron will be an NBA legend when its all said and done, but when he does get that Hall of Fame nod……what jersey will he wear? Will it even matter by then?