LaVar Ball‘s attempt to take over the world hit a bump in the road on Monday morning, as a report indicated that the Los Angeles Lakers will begin enforcing a rule with the hopes that media members won’t try to talk to him after games. Nicknamed the ‘LaVar Ball rule,’ the policy has been on the books for some time (and isn’t unique to the Lakers), but Lonzo Ball‘s outspoken father has caused the team to enforce it with more fervor than in the past.
The rule is designed to keep members of the media from heading to where family members and other people who are there to support a specific player sit and congregate after games. While the section is surely full of people every night, few have the level of notoriety that Ball has managed to achieve and none attract the media attention of Lonzo’s father.
According to Chris Haynes of ESPN, a team spokesperson claimed that enforcing this rule is a “privacy concern.”
Via ESPN:
Family, friends and agents wait for players in the seats behind the basket closest to the visiting team’s locker room at the conclusion of games. Interviews conducted in that designated area and near the tunnel leading to the arena corridors are now forbidden.
In prior years, media socialized and, at times, interviewed individuals in that sector without interference. If a media member is recognized in that area now, arena security or Laker staffers direct that he or she leave the area.
Beyond the whole “he got into a war of words with the President of the United States” thing, the patriarch of the Ball family has used his platform to criticize the Lakers’ coaching staff on how they coach his eldest son. Ball has criticized Luke Walton and co. for “babying” Lonzo, going as far as to call them “soft.” He also used the word “scared” to describe Walton’s use of a time out during the Lakers’ loss to Golden State last week.
There is, approximately, a zero percent chance that this will keep Ball from speaking to the media and sharing his thoughts on things, as he’s always quick to find a camera to talk into. But this step shows that the Lakers are going to try and do what they can to keep him from going off from his seat in Staples Center after games.
