The Big Ball Theory

For posterity.

 

You think he has damaged Gelo's career?

 

You're seriously asking this question?

 

Yes.

 

I'm kind of with your original point - I think there was hand-wringing about how Lavar was going to ruin their careers, but at that point, there wasn't much evidence that he was anything but a hype man for his boys. Like, a ridiculously over the top one, but still.

I think his handling of Gelo though is a little bit of a "crossing the Rubicon" moment for me, though. He probably should be at a four-year college, even if he's not going to play basketball, because it sure would be helpful to have someone with a college degree helping out with the family business in some way. Or fuck, maybe he just has an interest in Art History, and heck, I'm sure they got the money to pay for his college now. The scouting community is pretty united in that he's a marginal D1 prospect, nevermind a player that should be getting a pro check, and it's hard to see how having him sign with an agent and steered into that will help him in the long run.

 

Then you and I see this quite differently.

The best possible place for LiAngelo is at a mid-major college. That's where his talent level and age fits. He could've had a nice high-scoring college basketball career at the mid-major level, with a free college education/degree to boot. But instead, Lavar just forfeited those options forever ...to chase a pipe dream that LiAngelo's game is wholly unsuited for.

And you can't see how he might've damaged the kid's future here?

 

That poor agent.
Dealing with those 3, plus the psychopath father.
Yeeks.

 

Yeah, I don't really disagree with any of this.

 

The term used was "career," not "future." He has no basketball career of note to damage (beyond college, and that doesn't seem to matter to them).

His future? I have no idea if it's being damaged. What does Gelo want to do? Does he want the degree? Thanks to his dad's hustle his family has the resources to open up a lot of possibilities. If he wanted to play for years at a mid-major and then quit basketball they've screwed that up, but I don't see any evidence that he wants that.

I heard someone suggest he'd be better suited to try to play tight end. Not sure that's wrong. He's athletic -- he's just not a very good basketball player.

 

NO, he is not. At least not compared to other D1 prospects his height. He grades quite low on athleticism, which helps explain why he was such a low-rated prospect despite the gaudy high-scoring stats.

His best attribute was shooting--indeed (high volume) shooting is the only thing he was particularly known for--not athleticism. Yet, as that shot chart poin posted shows, even his shooting doesn't hold up well to scrutiny.

 

He's right-handed, correct? Isn't that odd that a player would never shoot while driving towa his dominant-hand side?

 

Have you observed his weird shooting form?

It's totally logical that it'd be much harder to shoot going right than left for him. Going left his shooting elbow remains relatively squared to the basket. Going right he's gotta do all sorts of awkward twisting and turning to get it squared with that form.