Any Laker fan with a small bit of awareness will know that LaVar Ball was not a fan of Luke Walton. Seemingly any time a microphone was placed in front of Ball’s mouth, he would comment about how the former Laker was not using his son correctly, even if Ball’s idea of correctly was wildly inaccurate.
While Ball will say he had a hand in Walton’s tenure in Los Angeles coming to an end, the end result is all the same. As the new coach in Frank Vogel enters, though, Ball’s tone is wildly different….for now.
From his recent appearance on Colin Cowherd’s radio show The Herd:
“Frank Vogel, I like what he says. But everybody can be good on the first day. They say everything you want to hear. I like what Frank is saying right now is like ‘I like Lonzo.’ He’s putting a point out there where he’s not saying, most people was talking about their veteran guards. ‘At least I have Rondo to mentor Lonzo.’ He didn’t say nothing like that. He was just like ‘Hey, I like Lonzo.’ I’m letting you guys know right now so there ain’t no friction…because what the media want to do is say ‘Why would you want to deal with Lonzo when you have to deal with his daddy?’”
LaVar has the timeline a bit off but the general message is right. Vogel didn’t mention Lonzo or any player outside of LeBron James in his introductory press conference. However, in a video posted in the days following, Vogel talked about each of the members of the Lakers young core and did offer the general sentiment LaVar mentioned above.
LaVar does not how it’s easy to be likable on day one and he’s not exempt from that. It’s easy for him to like Vogel now but the first time Lonzo doesn’t play in the fourth quarter or the team goes on a losing streak, his feelings toward Vogel will immediately change.
