Lakers management tried to get LaVar Ball to soften his comments about how his son Lonzo is being used by coach Luke Walton. The meeting doesn't appear to have had the desired effect.
The elder Ball and his business manager sat down with Lakers president Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka on Nov. 29 in LA before the team's game against the Warriors, ESPN.com reported Tuesday night.
Less than a week later, LaVar Ball was again taking Walton to task for his rotation, saying Lonzo needed to play the entire fourth quarter of games. NBA starters generally sit for the early portion of the period before re-entering. Lonzo Ball sat for the first 4 minutes, 15 seconds of the fourth against the Knicks on Tuesday, then played the final 12:45.
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"I'm going to say whatever I want to say, however I want to say it," Ball said Tuesday night (per ESPN.com) at Madison Square Garden, where the Lakers lost in overtime. "And they said, 'LaVar, come and talk to us first.' So that's fine, too.
"But I am going to say, to plant a seed, 'Let's look for this now.' They may not want to hear that, but it's going to be successful if you listen to what I'm saying on that fact that I know what it takes for my son to run like this."
Johnson and Pelinka declined to comment about the meeting. Walton has been publicly dismissive of what LaVar Ball wants.
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The elder Ball also engaged in happy talk as he related the meeting.
“What I love about [Johnson] is just the communication that we have as a family and as friends to fix the situation they’re just solutions that we throw off each other. That’s all it is," he said, per the Los Angeles Times. "The press is going to make it out like I’m trying to demean them or they’re trying to demean me. And it’s not.
“We’re just talking, we’re just talking. We’re trying to do what’s best for the team. That’s all.”
