LaVar Ball may be all the way in Lithuania, but that didn’t prevent him from stirring up some controversy regarding the Lakers on Sunday morning.
In a conversation with ESPN’s Jeff Goodman, Ball once again ripped into Lakers coach Luke Walton and claimed that he’d lost control of the locker room. LaVar, the father of star rookie point guard Lonzo Ball, explained that no one wanted to play for him and said that he was too young for the job and isn’t connecting with the players.
This wasn’t the first time LaVar had criticized Walton, but it was his most scathing review of the Lakers’ coach yet and comes at a time when the Lakers are struggling the most, having lost nine straight. Unsurprisingly, Ball’s comments were the talk of Lakers’ shootaround this morning in Los Angeles as they prepare for a (very winnable) game against the Atlanta Hawks. Lonzo shrugged off his dad’s comments as he has for more than a year, noting that LaVar is going to be LaVar and say what he wants, but he didn’t exactly offer up much in the way of support for his coach in the face of those criticisms, saying he’ll “play for anybody.”
Lonzo Ball on whether he is happy with Luke Walton as Lakers head coach: “I’ll play for anybody.” pic.twitter.com/9mSQFmReQo
— Bill Oram (@billoram) January 7, 2018
When he says he’ll play for anybody in response to the point blank question of “do you like [Luke Walton] as a coach?” is far from the ideal answer you’d want, and while Lonzo doesn’t say anything inflammatory (he even says he doesn’t think Walton’s really lost the locker room), he definitely doesn’t do much to put out the fire his father started. Lonzo seems so used to this that it doesn’t appear to phase him, as evidenced by his constant retort of “he’s going to speak his mind and you’re not going to change it.” That said, this seems like it was an opportunity to squash any grumblings of discontent and, at least publicly, give Walton a vote of confidence even if privately he believes what his dad is saying.
Walton was also asked about LaVar’s comments and, unsurprisingly, defended himself by saying he thinks the organizaton still has his back.
Luke Walton responds to LaVar Ball’s allegation that he has lost the locker room. “I would disagree with that,” he said. pic.twitter.com/dimJr1NEqv
— Bill Oram (@billoram) January 7, 2018
“I’m fine with it. It doesn’t bother me,” Walton said. “My only concern with any of it is for ‘Zo. As long as ‘Zo is fine with it and ‘Zo can come in and play and it doesn’t affect mine and his relationship then it doesn’t bother me at all.
“It’s not ideal, obviously, but the group is always…we have each other and that’s it. When we’re in there and we’re trying to fight off this losing streak and we’re winning games or we’re losing games or people are hurt, there’s always going to be outside stuff going on. We have to be able to count on each other. That’s what being a team is about. It should not impact what we’re trying to do and the message we’re trying to get delivered in our locker room.”
The thing is, even if LaVar is correct about this, and he very well may be, it’s not something the father of one of the team’s young stars should be saying and it puts everyone involved in a weird spot. This was the concern of many about Lonzo when he was coming into the draft, that LaVar would present an added and unnecessary distraction, especially when things aren’t going well.
With the mouthpiece LaVar has to disseminate that message, it’s impossible for it not to become a story and it puts Lonzo in an awkward position. Inevitably, when Lonzo does as he is wont to do and shrugs it off in his laid back manner, it doesn’t look great. We’ll see what the eventual fallout is and whether Walton is the man going forward after this season, but tensions in L.A. are only building right now.
