Los Angeles Lakers rookie Kyle Kuzma has been riding an incredible hot streak as of late. Kuzma was one of the best rookies in the Vegas Summer League last summer, and while you never know how solid summer league play will translate when that player is forced to go up against NBA competition for the first time, Kuzma carried that momentum into the preseason and regular season. He’s outplaying a significant number of rookies that were selected before him in the 2017 NBA Draft, including Lakers teammate Lonzo Ball.
While Kuzma has made an easy transition to the pros thus far, Ball’s transition has been a little more difficult. Through 9 games, Ball is giving the Lakers 8.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 6.7 assists in 32.8 minutes per game, while shooting just .308 from the field. Ball hasn’t looked bad overall, but his offense just isn’t there yet.
Kuzma, on the other hand, is giving the Lakers 15.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 28.1 minutes per game while shooting .563 from the field. Most importantly, though, this young Lakers team has been a lot of fun to watch, and they’re playing better than anyone could have predicted.
Kuzma signed a shoe deal with Nike this summer, and like NBA players often do when they’ve got a deal with a sneaker company, he posted a video of Nike making him a custom pair of AF-1’s. Lonzo Ball, of course, is ‘signed’ under his own family sneaker company, Big Baller Brand, and while he liked Kuzma’s post, he also left a comment that Kuzma did not appreciate.
Lonzo tried to sneak a little Big Baller Brand plug on Kuzma’s Nike post, and in return, Kuzma responded: “Don’t you ever comment BBB on my page ever again.”
The plan backfired on Kuzma, though. He could probably use a lesson or two on social media, because in typical internet fashion, hundreds of Big Ballers commented BBB on the post, and because Kuzma clearly doesn’t want BBB on his page, he can expect to find trolls in his Instagram comments until the end of time dropping BBB’s on him all day long.
