New Orleans Pelicans point guard Lonzo Ball has a strained relationship with the family patriarch LaVar Ball and is slowly cutting ties beginning with his departure from the Big Baller Brand.
While Lonzo isn't going so far as to say that he should have distanced himself much earlier, the 21-year-old shared in a recent episode of Adrian Wojnarowski's Woj Pod that the connection with LaVar played a major factor in teams targeting him during his rookie season.
“Everybody always says, when they meet me and get to know who I am, like ‘We didn’t think he was like this’ just because everything my dad does in the media. At the end of the day, I always tell people I’m my own person. Don’t group me with anybody. Whatever you see from me is what you get. When people get to know me, it’s always fine. But definitely, just coming into the league, everybody was trying to come at me for sure.”
This was particularly notable during opening day of the 2017-18 regular season when the Los Angeles Lakers went up against their crosstown rivals. The Los Angeles Clippers' Patrick Beverley ramped up the intensity of his already vaunted pesky defense particularly against the neophyte, holding Ball to a paltry three points on 16.7-percent shooting. But what definitely stood out was the smack talk and overt physicality handed out by the veteran Beverley on what should be a run of the mill matchup.
Lonzo is hoping that the controversial antics of his father will no longer hound him as he starts a new chapter with the Pelicans and perhaps forging a new shoe deal with a more established company away from the shadow of LaVar.
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