Lonzo Ball’s NBA regular season debut for the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night was nothing short of a disaster. It doesn’t get much worse than 3 points, 4 assists, and 9 rebounds in 29 minutes per game all while shooting just 16% from the field. In fairness to Lonzo, playing your first regular season NBA game against Patrick Beverley sounds like a nightmare, and his rough night has as much to do with Beverley as it does anything else.
Circumstances aside, Lonzo’s performance on Thursday night doesn’t mean anything. Sure, it’s fun to make jokes at the Ball family’s expense, and Beverley was hilarious all game, but one bad night in your NBA debut has zero overall significance to anything. Not to rain on everyone’s parade, but there are a lot of people out there making a big deal out of nothing, including Stephen A. Smith.
The ESPN on-air personality and First Take co-host was in Los Angeles for Lonzo’s debut on Thursday night. During Smith’s post-game hit on ESPN, LaVar Ball jumped in to defend his son, claiming that Lonzo had a good game. But Smith pushed back, claiming that not only did Lonzo have a bad game, but that it was LaVar’s fault.
If you’re dying to watch Stephen A. Smith and LaVar scream at each other for about five minutes, you can do that below.
We’re at the point where LaVar Ball’s schtick is so obvious now that breaking down what he actually said is probably trivial, but in case you didn’t watch the footage, Ball claimed it was a great night for Big Baller Brand because they “went up” 12 percent, whatever that means. Ball also revealed that Lonzo is playing on “a bad foot,” which is actually kind of valuable information to have if it’s true.
Thankfully, the fun didn’t stop there. Stephen A. Smith went on First Take Friday morning and doubled down on the comments he made Thursday night. Smith, again, made it a point to blame LaVar for Lonzo’s struggles, suggesting that all of LaVar Ball’s talking is motivating to opposing defenders.
It’s a fun theory, but it’s really hard to see it as anything other than a theory when the only game tape we have is 29 minutes against Patrick Beverley. Beverley might be the best defending point guard in the entire NBA. He’s a maniac, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.
Does Smith have a point? Maybe, but it’s probably too early to make that kind of proclamation. Let’s see what Lonzo Ball can do when he doesn’t have Beverley in his jersey all night.
