The Big Ball Theory

The quality of the points matters if you don't cross half court to play defense and you get outlet passes for wide open layups

 

Actually, not even layups, because that would require him to dribble in 20-30 feet to the basket and then run out again for the passes, a total of 50-60 feet of running per possession.

Mainly he stood there, got the 3/4 court outlet pass, took one or two dribbles, then pulled up for a 20-foot 3-pointer, a total of maybe 15 feet of running (medium jogging) per possession. Essentially it's the same thing as standing there and shooting free throws.

 

Yeah those are some crazy three-pointers

LaMelo Ball didn’t get back on defense during much of his outrageous 92-point game

 

LaVar Ball didn't truly "cross the line" in the eyes of the national media until he started clowning on royalty like Jordan, Curry and LeBron's kids.

In our celebrity-is-king-god-and-president culture that's just not something a "nobody" like Ball is allowed to do.

 

Yeah, I watched it again, which I hadn't done for a couple weeks: they were mostly layups.

And I will say one thing: I don't want to hear one single word of panty-pissing boo-hooing for the poor sorry little opposing team, Los Osos, which mainly stood there like bitches and let him dribble by. The Washington Generals couldn't have done better.

Perhaps some different motivation was needed:

 

It's more than that. I really wasn't aware of this guy to speak of. I'd seen a bit of chatter here on sj, but if you had asked me about him by name I would have looked at you blankly.

Then he started talking about how he would have trashed MJ in his prime. I looked at his college stats, looked at Jordan's NBA stats for the same year, and concluded "This guy is a dick", which basically remains my opinion.

 

You think he's serious? He's taking people for a ride. He's a blowhard.

 

No, I think he's milking the coverage for publicity to sell more overpriced hoodies. Which is his business, I guess... but I don't have to go along for the ride.

 

He's serious, he's a blowhard and he's an asshole.

Earl Woods said that "Tiger will do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity". Earl was serious. Turns out Tiger was famous for winning the second most majors, and banging diner waitresses.

Ball is quoted as saying each of his kids will be one and done. If you've ever seen the middle kid play, you'd know what a crock it is, and what kind of pressure that must put on him.

These dads are assholes. If you can't see it, its on you.

 

I've no real problem with those comments, because they just come off as a crazy goof trolling the media for publicity.

Instead, the comments where I think he comes off as a total asshole are ones like he made here--trashing his sons' UCLA teammates as a means to exalt Lonzo's greatness, or here--trashing (and kinda implicitly threatening) the HS coach who's been bending over backwards to cater to his sons (btw, curious what @PCLoadLetter thinks of these comments).

But the media talking heads don't give nearly as much play to those statements as they do the silly Jordan/Curry/Lebron stuff--guess it's one thing to belittle college teammates and nobodies, but don't you dare mess with NBA royalty.

 

Shrug. I don't bother reading the articles to know. I've thought and talked about him and his kids more in this thread than I have anywhere else.

I treat articles about him like I do hockey articles. They are there. They are news. Some folks are very interested. I'm not.

 

The quotes are kind of obnoxious. They just don't particularly bother me.

The UCLA stuff isn't wrong, for starters. It's snotty and pointless, obviously. And the stuff about the coach is pretty shitty, if you're the coach at Chino Hills. I'm not. My connection to Chino is that I've driven through it. So, LaVar can light him up and I really don't care.

The funniest thing about all of this to me -- and it was brought up again in that second article -- is the whole "What if he does this once Lonzo is in the NBA?" angle. And the answer is, some people will laugh, and there will be people who are Very, Very Concerned. None of this means anything at all.

Personalities are OK. Not everyone has to give canned answers. Rasheed Wallace is a legendary asshole, and "Ball don't lie" and "Both teams played hard, my man" will never stop being funny to me. The league could use more 'Sheeds.