When news of a reality show centered around LaVar Ball and his three basketball-playing sons (Lakers rookie Lonzo, UCLA freshman LiAngelo and Chino Hills High School standout LaMelo) surfaced, much of the response from the general public was what you might expect.
Just peep the replies to a Sporting News Twitter post, which featured the trailer of "Ball in the Family," Facebook's foray into the reality television game.
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No thanks
— Derrick williams (@C263Derrick) August 30, 2017
Cancelling my cable now
— IM_Drew (@DrewColbert) August 30, 2017
The exec that oked this needs to be fired. Immediately!
— coRAIDER (@CO_Raider) August 30, 2017
This has to be a terribly delayed April Fools joke.
— GratefulHoosier (@GratefulHoosier) August 30, 2017
But if you're a person (read: mature adult) capable of wading through hyperbole and willing to grapple with the novel concept human beings are complex, the first two episodes of "Ball in the Family" offer much, much more than a platform for LaVar to boast and brag. Don't get it twisted — he's not ready to back off his claims he could beat Michael Jordan in a game of 1-on-1 or that his progeny are the greatest basketball players he's ever seen. But, more importantly, the show gives a compelling look at a man wholly committed to helping his wife, Tina, and his boys in their quest to execute the plan he's presented and they've adopted wholeheartedly — reach the NBA and play for their hometown Lakers.
Given the odds, it's a quest as preposterous as LaVar's pridefulness, but with Lonzo going No. 2 overall to the Lakers in the 2017 draft and wowing in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, the Balls are for 1-for-1.
"Everything my dad does is definitely planned," Lonzo said in one of the opening cutaways of the show's first episode, which premiered Thursday afternoon. "Even if people think he's crazy, he knows what he's doing."
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The show tracks the Ball boys, each at a coming-of-age moments in their development. Lonzo is adjusting to navigating the NBA life as a rookie, expected to resurrect one of the league's most storied franchises and return it to its championship glory all the while maintaining his three-year relationship with girlfriend, Denise, who apparently doesn't play.
"I've caught Zo in a couple lies, but I know he's never cheated on me," she said in the show's second episode. "He would be an idiot if he did anything stupid because, A. I'm going to find out, and B. I'm done."
LiAngelo, the least heralded of the trio, is moving into Lonzo's old apartment as he prepares to follow in his brother's footsteps at UCLA. The flashy-dribbling, outspoken LaMelo, ranked No. 7 in the nation in the class of 2019 by ESPN, must traverse the high school ranks without either of his big brothers by his side for the first time.
However, the most interesting element of the show is its exploration of LaVar's relationship with Tina. Viewers will learn how they met and what her parents initially thought of him.
"My daughter told me she she had a boyfriend, and being that I'm white and he's black, I didn't know how to take that at first," Tina's father, Robert, said. "I probably didn't take it very well."
More than two decades later, LaVar is still by her side, helping Tina recover from a massive stroke she suffered just before UCLA began its journey to to the Elite Eight in last year's NCAA Tournament. The effects left her partially paralyzed and prevented her from traveling to Brooklyn, N.Y., with the rest of her family to attend the NBA Draft. But LaVar and Tina's folks have shunned hiring a speech therapist to work with their girl. Instead, they'll help her get get back to normal, the same way they do everything — as a family.
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"She used to have long hair and I think when she feels her hair and it's not all there, she might be thinking, 'Aww, no. I don't look as good as I normally do,'" LaVar said. "The way I always told her is, 'I don't care if your eye is on the side of your face and your nose is crooked and your lip is down. You still gone look beautiful to me 'cause I only see you one way.'
"As long as she can do two things we good. One is smile and the other is kiss her boys. She's gonna get better. I know it. Whether it takes one year, two years, three, where am I going? We all in this together. We got a good team."
You can check out the first two episodes of "Ball in the Family" below.