You may be stunned to hear this, but Luke Walton doesn’t care about LaVar Ball‘s thoughts on his coaching style. On Tuesday afternoon, a story in Bleacher Report revealed that Ball believes the Lakers’ coaching staff is “soft” and that it has no idea how to coach up his eldest son, Lonzo.
Ball’s main gripe seemed to be that he disliked that Walton and his staff want to be patient and not put too much pressure on their young players, including their struggling rookie guard. He believes the team should “put the [onus] on them” and essentially crank up the heat under its players, with the idea that they would respond in a positive way.
It’s not an uncommon disagreement, but it is uncommon for this argument to take place publicly between a coach of a professional team and the dad of one of their players. Walton seems to agree with this, which is why he wanted to squash any belief that he was going to be influenced by Ball.
Luke Walton on what he says about LaVar Ball saying he’s not coaching Lonzo the right way: “Absolutely nothing…it’s not what we’re here to do or talk about.”
— Shahan Ahmed (@shahanLA) November 22, 2017
Walton dismissing Ball like this is a pretty stern way to stress that he’s going to stay the course and do things the way he thinks is right. Seeing as how he was on the bench working with (and sometimes taking over for) Steve Kerr as he led the Golden State Warriors to a title, he is coming from a more informed place than Ball is when it comes to coaching in the NBA.
