Because I care about you and don’t want to subject you to direct contact with Undisputed on FS1, I took the time to watch a clip that features Lonzo Ball’s dad, LaVar, saying to Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe that his son is a better basketball player than two-time reigning MVP Steph Curry.
If you’re older, think of me as Spock subjecting myself to radiation poisoning so Kirk and the crew can live in that Star Trek movie. If you’re younger, think of me as Kirk doing the same thing and being magically revived in that newer Star Trek movie.
Here’s how the Ball-Curry conversation went down with the nation’s leading Basketball Dad:
Shannon: Do you think you might’ve went out on a limb a little too far when you said your son, who’s a college freshman at UCLA, is better than Steph Curry, a two-time MVP with the last time being unanimous?
LaVar: No.
OK, so there’s more, but that’s a really funny way to answer a question like that.
Shannon: Do you think you might’ve went out on a limb a little too far when you said your son, who’s a college freshman at UCLA, could beat up Superman, who possesses superhuman strength, can fly and can’t be defeated with Earth’s weapons?
LaVar: No.
OK, here’s the rest of the real conversation.
LaVar: No. On the fact that I have the utmost confidence in what my son does. And just because I say he’s better than somebody, who cares? I believe it. So I don’t care what nobody else says. You can judge on your own.
Shannon: This is not hyperbole. You sincerely believe this.
LaVar: I believe it? I know it. I know what work my boy put in for me to say that. So just because somebody else has titles, I’m not disliking Steph Curry or nothing. What he’s done for himself, that’s for him. Lonzo was the best player in high school. He was the best player in college. You think he’s going to get the pros and be like, “I made it to the pros, now I can be average.” We’re coming for everybody.
This is such a ridiculous interview. Not because of what Ball says, but because … what else would he say? It’s his kid. And he already said it. This is a 10-minute interview with a dad who loves his kid. It’s not like he was going to back down.
So it’s also what LaVar says — there’s a thing about beating him with a 2 x 4 that lost me for a second — and everything else here I guess.
But as for the part about being the best in college and going on to be average in the NBA — Trey Burke, Doug McDermott and Frank Kaminsky are three of the past five college basketball players of the year, so maybe LaVar wants to at least hold off a bit before saying his son is better than Steph.
Then again, Lonzo never blew a 3-1 lead in his career. So maybe keep talking. LaVar is right. Who cares?
