You ever wondered why LaVar Ball is winning at life?
Here are the reasons why!
11 - Early life
At 6-foot-6 and 320 pounds, LaVar Ball is larger than, well, fill in the blank.
A house.
J.J.
Watt.
Life.
But really, how did America even get to know Lavar Ball?!
Let’s start just a little bit with his early life before we get to why we all know Lavar
Ball.
LaVar was raised in South Los Angeles, California, where he grew up with four brothers named
LaFrance, LaValle, LaRenzo, and LaShon.
LaVar attended Canoga Park High School where he was the quarterback on the football team
and played basketball as a forward.
He stood 6’4” and weighed 225 lbs (102 kg) by college.
LaVar’s father has always referred to LaVar as “Bravo,” a nickname he gave him when
he was younger because he saw LaVar as independent.
Grandpa Ball said he didn’t allow LaVar to play sports until he was a sophomore in
high school, but LaVar eventually went on to play college basketball anyways with a
small stint in professional football as well.
10 - College Years
In college, Lavar, I guess you can now say, famously averaged 2.2 points, 2.3 rebounds,
and 1.0 assists per game in 36 games for Washington State.
Yeah, definitely not stellar stats for anyone that’s saying the things Lavar Ball says.
After one season, Ball transferred to Cal State Los Angeles and played alongside three
of his four brothers.
After his college basketball career had ended, he continued to play football at Long Beach
City College for one season as a tight end, a move that paid off for at least a little
while down the road.
Aside from sports, Ball majored in criminal justice at college and had hopes of being
a U.S. Marshall.
9 - Pro Football
As I had mentioned earlier, playing football worked out for LaVar for a little while.
After finishing college, Ball was invited to a football tryout and eventually made a
return to the sport.
In 1994 Ball made it to the NFL and signed with the New York Jets as a defensive end.
He returned to the Jets on March 7, 1995 as a tight end, but ended up on the London Monarchs
of NFL Europe the same year.
Lavar said that he made it to the league not even playing college football - and that's
how talented he was.
With his own way of marketing, LaVar not only said that he was good enough to make it in
the NFL, but that he was a better player than Rob Gronkowski.
Hmmm okay.
The only reason wasn’t in the league longer?
It’s cuz that he quote "didn't have the right guys" behind him!
He also mentioned that he used to be 270 pounds with a 48-inch vertical, benched 500 pounds,
and ran a four five, or four six in the 40.
You guys notice a theme yet?!
Now, you and I know that there’s about a zero percent chance Lavar did these numbers,
nor that he was better than Gronkowski.
But the fact that he’s gotten people discussing his BS means something!
8 - Lavar’s partner in crime
LaVar said he discovered his ideal partner back in 1989 when he spotted his future wife,
Tina, then a 6’1 basketball player at Cal-State Los Angeles.
Obviously, Lavar claimed that he was one of the most popular dudes in the school, where
all the girls liked him.
Supposedly when LaVar first saw his future wife walking down the hall, he just stopped
her and said, quote “I don’t know what me and you are going to do together, but we’re
going to do something.”
For anyone that’s been following any sports news the past few months, they know they had
three kids named Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo.
Hey, lucking out with someone that can put up with this dude and give him three sons?
Winning.
7 - Lavar’s visions of Grandeur LaVar said he conceived of the idea of his
own Ball boys — the three sons he would groom to be basketball stars — way before
they were conceived.
“You only need three," LaVar said.
“You need one down the middle and two down the sides.’’
LaVar apparently knew that his kids would all play basketball.
Or rather, maybe they were gonna be basketball players regardless.
After his youngest son LaMelo turned 4, Ball began training all of his sons to play basketball
together.
Obviously they all had decent genes as LaVar is 6’6 and Tina is 6’1.
LaVar taught them how to ball, and they’ve all played ball under him on his AAU teams.
For a relatively short period of time in their childhoods, LaVar also had them play flag
football, with Lonzo playing quarterback and his other sons being receivers.
6 - Lavar’s Marketing
Ball’s mouth and his sons’ success have for sure turned him into at least a C-list
celebrity.
Some people hate him, some people love him, but right now, any marketing is good marketing
for Lavar and Big Baller Brand.
Most people think that he’s ruining his kid’s chances for a career with his antics.
But a lot of people don’t seem to realize that Lonzo still did just fine with the Lakers
taking him second overall in the draft.
He’s always coached his sons and they’ve been always playing against better competition,
which means playing against far older kids, until the boys reached high school.
Lavar could have had his boys go the private school route, but he decided to keep the boys
close to home.
He wasn't worried about lack of exposure.
Lavar always had a marketing plan in place to showcase his kids’ talent.
Lavar’s attitude was that his boys were going to make their own name regardless of
where they were.
Lavar said quote, "If they can find some kids in Africa then you can find my boys in Chino
Hills off the 71 freeway.
It ain't that far."
5 - Big Dreams for the Boys
Though much less muscular than their father, the Ball boys are making almost as much noise
on the court as LaVar Ball is off the court, and you can almost arguably say that once
Lavar started getting a platform, he’s become the reason why more people know of his kids.
Lonzo is essentially one of the most exciting and hyped rookies over the past few years,
as he was the second overall draft pick by the Lakers in 2017.
His brother LiAngelo scored 72 points in a game for Chino Hills and LaMelo topped that
with 92 points in a game.
During the 2017 NBA Summer League, Ball led the league in double-doubles and triple-doubles
recorded, and because of his play he was the Summer League MVP.
I don’t think I really need to go into how talented the ball brothers are, as their work
on the court speaks for itself.
As far as how they got to this level, Lavar can take credit for raising his kids and teaching
them what it takes to get them to this level.
Lavar said this of his sons, saying quote, “They're 4.0 grade-point students and they
love the game of basketball.
I handle discipline and athletics.
My wife handles all the book work.”
4 - Marketing and more marketing
"Bang-bang," is LaVar’s signature phrase.
But, of course, he’s got more.
He's loud, brash, confident, friendly, gregarious (greg-gary-ous) and almost always positive.
He's basically just like Kobe back in 06 with his comments when he dropped 81 with a no-shot-is-a-bad-shot
game plan!
In case you guys haven’t noticed, LaVar is getting exactly what he wants from the
media and the public – attention!
He understands that both the media and the public will continue to listen to what he
says, be it because it’s for hate, entertainment, or both.
He’s definitely not as stupid as everyone makes him out to be, as he’s proven to be
smart enough to manipulate everyone into thinking he’s stupid so that he can basically keep
on winning in life.
Let’s not forget this dude was just a personal trainer who probably didn’t make very much
money, and now he’s getting paid for appearances, AND he has a brand that’s definitely gonna
be a multi-million dollar company because of his brilliantly executed, although interesting,
marketing strategy.
3 - Shoot for the stars land on the moon
What ridiculous statement HASN’T he made?!
From demanding a billion dollars for his brand to claiming that he would have spanked MJ
in a game of 1 on 1, he’s played his hand to perfection.
Here’s just a sampling of his crazy a** comments.
“Back in my heyday, I would kill Michael Jordan one-on-one.”
“A billion dollars, it has to be there.
That’s our number, a billion, straight out of the gate.
And you don’t even have to give it to me all up front.
Give us $100 mil over 10 years.”
—
“My son will only play for the Lakers.”
When LaVar claimed that he could have “killed Michael Jordan” in a game of one-on-one
back in the day, h*ll, even Charles Barkley responded.
Barkley appeared on Mike & Mike in the Morning on Wednesday and sounded off on LaVar.
Really?
We needed Charles to come on ESPN to tell us what we already know?
As far as the billion dollar statement goes, LaVar wanted Nike, Adidas or Under Armour
to buy up the brand in an endorsement deal for Lonzo.
He said quote, "We've said from the beginning, we aren't looking for an endorsement deal,".
Lavar wanted to be a partner.
And of course he knew he wasn’t gonna get a billion dollars from any of the companies.
But in shooting for the stars, he’s gonna land on the moon.
Ball won’t disclose how big the Big Baller Brand has become.
But anyone that’s business saavy enough to know anything about conversion rates should
be able to come up with an estimate.
2 - Big Baller Brand Continuing to Rise
In May 2017, Big Baller Brand announced a November 2017 release of its first shoe, the
ZO2.
The price of $495 garnered significant media attention.
LaVar Ball responded on Twitter to critiques of the shoes' price by telling people that
if they couldn’t afford the ZO2'S, they weren’t a big baller.
Yea, definitely a ridiculous statement, but what happened next?
He got an interview on ESPN!
In his interview with Colin Cowherd, Ball actually UPPED his offer to the big shoe companies
like Nike.
The price went up to $3 billion dollars!.
He also said that Big Baller Brands has sold between 400 to 520 ZO2 shoes, which is nothing
to sniff at for a startup.
1 - Started from the bottom
Even though he himself seems crazy, he’s shown his true character with how his sons
behave and play on the basketball court.
Ball has talked about the different types of discipline he used on his sons, including
giving Lonzo quote "a couple of hits upside the head" after he missed curfew and was pulled
over by police in high school.
He’s also been quoted by saying he’s used quote "a belt or something" to discipline
LaMelo.
Lavar later clarified remarks he made during the interview, saying that he’s spanked
each son once in their lives, and that the spankings instilled a sense of fear so he
would never need to do it again.
Lavar has this to say for himself.
“I'm loud but I'm going to come up to everyone and be friendly.
I don't hold no grudges with anyone.
People say a lot of things about me and I really don't care.
Good or bad.
Nothing is going to stop me from doing what I do with my boys.
The gyms are always going to be packed when my boys play because 50 percent of them like
us and the other 50 percent hope they beat our butt.
That's fine with me, because you're not going to please everybody.
I'm good with that.
As long as my boys work hard, are cordial and polite with people, I'm fine with that.”
From doing personal training to getting paid for appearances because of his big mouth,
I’d say Lavar Ball’s winning big time now and is doing just fine!
Here's what’s next!