LaVar Ball hands Lonzo to Magic: 'I'll leave it up to you to take him further'

Leading up to the 2017 NBA Draft, there was much made about the presence of LaVar Ball around his son Lonzo Ball once his NBA career begins.

Despite all those questions, the Los Angeles Lakers selected Ball with the second overall pick without any hesitation. According to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, any concerns that may have been present from the organization were quickly erased with LaVar informing team president Magic Johnson that he will let the Lakers take over with his son.

“He just said it's marketing,” Magic Johnson said. “That's what he had to do to market not only his son but the brand. Before I met him I had already thought that. I already knew what he was doing.”

As Johnson recalls, “He said, ‘Earvin, look, I'm not following my son. I'm not going to be hanging out in L.A. I'm going to be training these young kids [his other sons].'”

“‘As far as training my boy, this is as far as I can take him,'” LaVar says he told Johnson. “‘I'll leave it up to you to take him further. You can get him better with the film time and the coaching. You can take him to another level.'”

“I trust you with my boy. I just got a great feeling that you guys are going to take Zo to a whole other level.'”

For as much criticism that LaVar has received over the last several weeks, he has done a strong job of building up the hype around his son heading into his rookie year. The fact that he is taking a step back shouldn't come as much of a surprise given that Lonzo is with the team that he wanted to play for.

There is already a tremendous weight on the 19-year-old's shoulders to quickly become the face of the franchise for the Lakers. This faith in Lonzo has likely given LaVar more reason to let his son handle his own business in the NBA.

That said, this likely won't mean that he will take a step back in his prominence in the sports media scene. He's still going to garner attention anywhere he goes because of his huge personality and antics in just about every interview and appearance. Much more should be expected to come in that regard.