Led by LaVar Ball, the loud-mouthed patriarch with a gung-ho attitude an arrogant demeanor, together with his two sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo, they have taken the basketball world by storm and left a ton of destruction in the process.
The Balls have quickly gained a reputation of being seemingly the most dysfunctional family in all of sports – and it doesn’t even come close.
To this day, they’ve done some questionable things, as recounted by Sam Belden of Business Insider, yet arguably the most damaging happened overseas. After experiencing much controversy in the USA, LaVar decided to take the entire Ball act to Lithuania, and have his sons play professionally for Prienai-Birstonas Vytautas in the LKL. This, as you can probably assume, did not go well for all parties involved.
Following a supposed heated argument with the coach over LaMelo’s playing time, the Big Baller CEO pulled his children out of the league to bring them back stateside.
This did not sit well with the team and after months of keeping quiet, head coach Virginijus Seskus finally broke his silence and shed light on the Ball’s escapades. Here are some of his comments, as captured by Andrew Bucholtz of The Comeback:
“The first and most crucial mistake we made was allowing them, especially LaVar, think that they are in charge of the club – its decisions, its plans and even the game. His boys were nowhere near the level of the LKL, let alone NBA, which league obviously understands, seeing the draft outcome. And the most disappointing fact was that they had no inner drive to become better. And when they saw it was going nowhere, they started destroying the club, not paying out prize money to the Big Baller Brand tournament winners, etc.,”
These are some incredibly harsh accusations on their mindset, work ethic, and even integrity as people, which could potentially make scouts raise their eyebrows and investors err away.
LaVar, being a shrewd businessman himself, knows the potential blowback of negative news like this, so you can be sure he issues a statement in the coming days. It will definitely be interesting what he has to say or how he defends his boys from the Lithuanians’ comments.
As for everyone else – it may be best to steer clear from the Balls, at least until this issue is resolved.
Follow Us
Subscribe