It’s mid-November and the Lakers have hit a tough stretch. The losses are piling up. Lonzo Ball is struggling to make shots, can’t keep up on the defensive end against quicker point guards and his bid for Rookie of the Year is going up in flames.
Uh-oh. Here comes LaVar Ball, and this time he’s not selling Big Baller shoes. He’s going after Luke Walton, generating a firestorm on social media and sending Laker-land into a frenzy.
What, that can’t happen? Of course it can, and with LaVar’s grandiose expectations (he guaranteed the Lakers will make the playoffs this season), it would be kind of shocking if he didn’t have at least one run-in with his son’s new coach.
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As we’ve seen, when it comes to his three basketball-playing sons, LaVar operates by one rule: Father knows best. He never went after Lonzo’s coach at UCLA, Steve Alford, but he’s gone after his kids’ high school coach. Walton, entering his second season as an NBA head coach, is seen as fair game.
In fact, there’s a prop bet in Las Vegas on how many games it will take LaVar to publicly criticize his son’s head coach. The number is set at 15 1/2, which is seen as high by some coaches who have heard LaVar over the past year take on Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, female sportscasters and a host of others. (In case you were wondering, Game 15 is a Nov. 15 home game against the Sixers, after Lonzo and the Lakers return from a four-game trip to Boston, Washington, Milwaukee and Phoenix.)
We polled several current and former NBA head coaches to find out how they’d handle LaVar if they coached the Lakers and he went off on them. Not surprisingly, they all insisted that Magic Johnson, the Lakers’ president, had sat down with LaVar before the season to tell him that public criticisms of their coaching would not be tolerated.
"Actually, that message should come from Magic and (owner) Jeanie Buss," said one former longtime head coach, who also was a team president when he was in the NBA. "The message has to be: 'We get how much you care about your kid. We really do. But now this is serious business. You can no longer be a Little League dad. You need to just shut up.' Say it nicely, but it has to be said.
"As much as this guy has gone to the Madonna school, where he thinks all publicity is good publicity, he needs to cool it. He’s got to realize that now you’re talking about something very serious, and the last thing this franchise needs is to be involved in a public feud."
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Johnson did, in fact, meet with LaVar at his Chino Hills home for a long visit in the days leading up to the draft, when the Lakers selected Lonzo at No. 2 overall. So it’s entirely possible that during their time together, Johnson covered this particular issue and laid out some guidelines. Perhaps that’s why the Lakers aren’t nervous about a LaVar outburst against Walton, league sources told Sporting News. (For what it's worth, Alford said LaVar "never" meddled in his coaching while Lonzo played for UCLA.)
If the Lakers have not already told LaVar that they will not tolerate him venting about Walton, they would not be doing their jobs, according to a second former head coach.
"You think Pat Riley would stand for something like this, to have Eric Spoelstra taken to task for his coaching by a guy like LaVar? No way in hell that would ever happen," said the coach, who was in the league for more than a decade with two teams. "Believe me, Pat would take care of this behind the scenes so Eric wouldn’t have to get involved in it. Pat would tell Eric, 'Don’t say a word. Don’t respond to his comments. That’s my responsibility.'
"If the GM doesn’t get between your coach and LaVar, let me tell you, that coach is in a bad place. Because there’s only going to be trouble if this goes back and forth. Nobody wins in that case."
Certainly not Lonzo. No Lakers rookie since Magic Johnson has come into the NBA with a bigger spotlight on his purple and gold uniform, or as much pressure — not even Kobe Bryant. Considering the position he’s playing, where he’s from, where he played his college basketball, the state of the franchise and what he is expected to do, no rookie in this draft class has a larger bullseye on his back than Lonzo.
All coaches polled say unequivocally that they would have drafted Lonzo if he were available, even knowing that his father could become a disruptive element at any time.
Said one current Eastern Conference head coach: "The thing about LaVar is you’ve got to have an open line of communication. The good front offices in the league have very good relationships with the players’ families and their agents. That’s what you need here. As a coach, I’d tell him, 'you can’t question what role I have for your son or what I am expecting or how I’m coaching him.' He has to understand, no one is going to tell me how to do my job. That has to be made crystal clear.
"I don’t know LaVar but I would hope he would understand that. He’s got let me do the coaching without any interference."
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Added a Western Conference coach: "When I watched Lonzo play, I saw that the game is easy for him. He sees the play before it happens. Not many guys have that gift. Guys like Jason Kidd. He makes everyone around him better and you can’t teach that. He moves the ball and gets it to the guys who are supposed to get it, like Magic or John Stockton. But LaVar can’t be coming in here, messing with me or my team’s chemistry. That won’t be tolerated."
So far, LaVar has shown signs of restraint. When he came to New York for the draft, he was reportedly given some ground-rules by the league as to what was expected and he followed those to the letter. In preseason, he wasn’t around the Lakers’ training facility at all to draw attention to himself or make more bold proclamations about Lonzo. He attended preseason games, and wherever the Lakers played, there were dozens of fans lining up to meet him and take a selfie with him before games. Otherwise, sources said, he had a zero presence.
Whether he continues to mind his own business now that the season has begun, that’s seen as another issue. One coach said the best way to diffuse any potential trouble with Walton would be if Lonzo entered the picture.
"At some point, he has to tell his dad, 'this is my life now, so let’s not make any scenes,'" the coach said. "Lonzo has to cut the cord and say to his dad, 'I’ve got to take care of my own business. You can’t fight my fights anymore. I’m a grown man, I’ll fight my fights.' Lonzo comes off as a great kid. You can tell he’s very smart, he plays for other guys and he shows great leadership.
"He should be the one to tell his dad to leave his coach alone. That would really show me something about his leadership."
Listen to Mitch Lawrence on SiriusXM NBA Radio throughout the week and on NBA Weekend. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Lawrence.
