LaVar Ball, the father of Lakers rookie point guard and prized first-round draft choice Lonzo Ball, is at it again.
In an exclusive interview with ESPN from Birstonas, Lithuania, where his two younger sons are preparing to launch their professional basketball careers, Ball was harshly critical of Lakers coach Luke Walton, saying he has lost control of the team, and no longer has the support of his players.
“You can see they’re not playing for Luke no more,” Ball told ESPN’s Jeff Goodman. “Luke doesn’t have control of the team no more. They don’t want to play for him.”
“That’s a good team,” he continued. “Nobody wants to play for him. I can see it. No high-fives when they come out of the game. People don’t know why they’re in the game. He’s too young. He’s too young … He ain’t connecting with them anymore. You can look at every player, he’s not connecting with not one player.”
The Lakers take a nine-game losing streak into Sunday night’s home game against the Atlanta Hawks. Walton said Friday that he didn’t think his job was in jeopardy. “I coach as if it’s not,” he said.
But LaVar Ball seems to think it should be. He criticized Walton for his use of Lonzo Ball in the Lakers’ loss to Charlotte Friday, the rookie’s first game back from a six-game absence because of injury.
“Lonzo looked good, but he also looked disgusted,” Ball told ESPN. “He was ready to play. Four minutes left in the first quarter, he dunked it, getting in a flow and Coach sits him down. Sat him down. Now game goes from four points to 10 to 15 to 20. I don’t know what they’re doing. If he’s ready to play, let him play. Don’t try and monitor no minutes, put on restrictions.”