We’re just three games into Lonzo Ball’s NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and it’s been an eventful first week, to say the least. Patrick Beverley introduced him to what NBA defenses are capable of. Snoop Dogg piled on with what might be the single best basketball analogy of all-time. But most importantly, he’s playing some decent basketball.
Ball is giving the Lakers 13.3 points, 8.7 assists, and 9.3 rebounds on .348 shooting from the field in 34.3 minutes per game. You’d like that shooting percentage higher, certainly, but averaging a near-triple-double through the first three games of your rookie season is not too shabby.
In the immediate aftermath of Ball’s NBA debut where Beverley made his life miserable for 29 minutes, a lot of NBA players and insiders started to blame LaVar Ball for Beverley taking that matchup personally. John Wall provided similar commentary, claiming that Lonzo has a target on his because of how LaVar Ball promotes his son while trashing coaches, teammates, and the rest of the NBA.
Wall’s comments are particularly interesting because the Wizards will be in Los Angeles on Wednesday night to play Lonzo and the Lakers. Leading up to Wednesday’s matchup, ESPN’s Law Murray caught up with LaVar to ask him about the matchup against Wall, and LaVar said “Washington coming in here Wednesday. They better beware, because Lonzo ain’t losing again. Not in the same week. Check it out.”
LaVar’s comments prompted Washington Wizards center Marcin Gortat to weigh in. He was not kind to Lonzo Ball, going so far as to say John Wall will “torture” him on Wednesday. The rest speaks for itself.
man….. pleaseeeeee!!! @JohnWall will torture him for 48min 😂😂😂😂
— Marcin Gortat🇵🇱 (@MGortat) October 23, 2017
I wanna see this …:) glad I got the best seats/spots in the building 😂😂😂😈
— Marcin Gortat🇵🇱 (@MGortat) October 23, 2017
he will kill his son one day
— Marcin Gortat🇵🇱 (@MGortat) October 23, 2017
Gortat ending his anti-Lonzo tweetstorm by retweeting a classic John Wall meme to perfectly encapsulate this whole ordeal.
https://twitter.com/MR__weiner/status/922500751246708736
If you weren’t excited for Ball’s matchup with John Wall and the Wizards before this, it’s certainly going to me must-see TV now. The NBA knew it, too. The game will be featured on ESPN. The NBA is more like pro wrestling than you think.
