Before Lavar Ball’s Dream of Having All Three of his son’s play for the Lakers at
the same time... took a slight left turn:
Before Lavar would get into beef with the president of the United States
Before Lavar and his sons would find out that one of the family’s closest friends was
stealing from Big Baller Brand
And Before the man would give us some of the most entertaining moments in media history,
including:
And of course
LaVar Ball finessed the sports world from the sidelines in ways that not many others
had ever done before him.
I mean there aren’t that many dad’s that get regular slots on ESPN.
Although, after his most recent comments, we’re not sure if he’ll be back on there
anytime soon.
Say what you want about Lavar Ball, but there is no doubt that he is one of the most supportive
parents that we have in the public eye and he really just wants the best for his kids.
His methods are a bit over the top, but I think it all comes from a place of love, and
who are we to say that it hasn’t worked so far.
What’s going on good people in the comment section?
I hope you’re having one Hecht of a day, my name is Jeremy Hecht, and I’ll be your
host today as I take you through the life and finesse of LaVar Ball, here for you on
Before They Were Famous.
If you’re new here, I’m the LA host for this channel and although I am sad to see
LaVar leave LA, if his plan somehow ends up working out, maybe he’ll return alongside
LaMello in the future.
Some people say that me, Jared and Michael are like the Ball family of media.
Well people really just say that we all look alike, it could be the beards and the whiteness,
but I will say this.
Michael is the Lavar of this media empire, and Jared and I are just stepping in as Lonzo
and Melo to fullfull his dream of having his kids play in the league.
So hopefully making you proud dad.
Also that was no shade to Gelo, it’s just nobody wants to be him in this situation.
We’ve covered everyone else in the ball family for this channel so be sure to check
those videos out later and follow me on Instagram to let me know who to cover next.
Before we start though, I’ve got a trivia question for you:
“What would Lavar have named his fourth son if he had one?”
Stick around until the end of the video to find out the answer.
Alright, let’s get into the show!
Lavar Ball was born on October 23rd 1968 in South Los Angeles, California.
He grew up with four brothers whose names all begin with the letter L, LaFrance, LaVelle,
LaRenzo and LaShon.
A tradition that he later carried on with him when naming his future children.
The L thing is kind of ironic, because no matter what you have to say about the guy,
he’s taken a lot of W’s in his life.
Lavar and his brothers loved playing basketball and always pushed each other to become better
on the court.
And the family competition worked out because Lavar was a 3-sport letterman at Conoga Park
High School in the Valley.
He was all-league in Basketball, and did well on the Football field and running Track.
But his best shot at playing pro seemed to lie on the ball court.
So he decided to focus all of his effort into making the NBA, heading to college at Washington
State to play basketball.
And since the numbers didn’t speak for themselves, Lavar wanted to prove that he could hold his
own with the best.
He wasn’t satisfied with his minutes on the court so after one season, Lavar transferred
to Cal State University in Los Angeles.
His mouth may have you believe otherwise, but Lavar is extremely calculated and knew
that not making the NBA was a likely possibility at this time, so he focused his energy on
studying Criminal Justice with a plan B of becoming a U.S. Marshall.
Transferring schools proved to be the greatest move of his life, not because his playing
time improved, but because it was at Cal State that he met his future wife and mother of
his children, Tina.
She was also a basketball player on the women’s team at Cal State, and naturally, Lavar was
sold.
He was not only attracted to who she was as a person, but also her height.
Seeing the potential for greatness within their future children.
Tina unfortunately suffered a stroke at the age of 49, and as of right now, I don’t
exactly know what condition she is currently in.
So I just wanted to send my condolences and best wishes to the family if they are watching
this.
It seems like she is a fighter and knowing that family, they’ll get through anything
thrown their way.
Alright, back to the story.
And even though he was all conference at Cal State averaging 15.8 points and 8.9 rebounds
per game, Lavar realized that despite his extreme confidence in his own abilities, his
dreams of being the next MJ weren’t going to come true, so he transferred once again,
this time, to Long Beach City College so that he could play one year of college football
as a tight end.
And that dream seemed like it could pan out.
In 1994, Lavar was signed as a free agent defensive end to the New York Jets under coach
Pete Carroll
Lavar wore number 99 and played hard in training camp, but was cut before the season began.
The following season under new coaching staff, he returned to the Jets, this time as his
original position of Tight End.
Former linebacker Marvin Jones recalls practicing with LaVar Ball and said,
"He was a very athletic guy and raw.
I remember a very confident guy and, yes,” “he voiced his opinion and was cocky, but
overall seemed like a great guy."
After getting cut again, he played Football sporadically for the London Monarch’s in
the WLAF and made it onto the practice squads for the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers.
But nothing stuck and he was unable to make it onto the official roster for an NFL team.
So Lavar’s new plan was to become a personal trainer.
Tina became a Physical Education teacher and her and Lavar got married in 1997.
Their first son Lonzo was born that same year, and with him, the start of a new basketball
dream.
LiAngelo was born a year later and LaMelo was born in 2001.
So with three sons, the potential for a family of superstars started to shine though for
Lavar.
And if you think that the Big Baller Brand plan wasn’t set in motion from day one,
then you might be overlooking just how calculated Lavar is.
Even his youngest son, LaMelo started first grade a year early so that he could possibly
play high school basketball with his two older brothers while they were still in school.
LaMelo began practicing with his older brothers on the court when he was just four years old.
Melo also played flag football with his brothers when he was 5.
Lavar created his own U-17 team so that he could coach his boys directly, and they were
a pretty dominant squad.
But Lavar didn’t believe in trophies whether they were for participation or championships.
I love that tactic, it makes people fall in love with the process of winning rather than
the material reward of what comes AFTER you win.
The ball brothers all attended Chino Hills high school where they started to make a name
for themselves as one of the hottest basketball families in the nation.
By the time LaMello was in high school, gyms all across Los Angeles were packed out, as
people waited to see the Ball prodigy who was shooting half court shots and dunking
effortlessly in games.
The team became the number one squad in America at one point.
The family appeared together in the extremely successful Facebook show “Ball in the Family”
with multiple millions of views per episode.
Some people even labeled the Ball family, the Kardashians of basketball.
Although the Kardashians have had some exceptional basketball talent at their family dinners
as well…
I mean they could have a decent starting 5 with Tristan Thompson, Ben Simmons, Lamar
Odem, Blake Griffin and Jordan Clarkson.
Sorry Kris Humphries, you’re gonna come off the bench for this one.
Lonzo was the first to earn a scholarship to UCLA, followed by LiAngelo and later LaMelo
although he chose to forgo college altogether.
And since is the updated version, we’ll take you through what happened to each of
the brothers since the last time we made this video.
First up we have the first piece of the Ball puzzle: Lonzo:
Lonzo had a successful career at UCLA being labeled as one of the most promising prospects
in college basketball that year.
Lavar’s dream of having his boys play for the Lakers began to come true as Lonzo was
drafted with the second overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
And while everyone thought that bringing Magic,
LeBron and having Lonzo in LA would bring the showtime Lakers back, in his first two
seasons, he didn’t meet the high expectations placed on him.
He was recently traded to the Pelicans for Anthony Davis where he looks to create a legacy
of his own with a new team, and I have a feeling the best is yet to come for Lonzo.
Next up we have Gelo.
The second child LiAngelo also played for UCLA.
Well, he technically only played one game before the shoplifting scandal of 2017 took
place in China.
Ball and two of his teammates were arrested in a Louis Vitton
store in China for shoplifting, which ended up gaining nation-wide press coverage and
even action from President Trump.
This is what started a hilarious back and forth between Lavar and the president:
But because of the incident, he was forced to leave UCLA.
He continued his basketball career in Europe, signing with a team in the Lithuanian Basketball
League.
After putting up multiple games with 20+ points, he entered his name into the 2018 NBA draft
but unfortunately, Lavar’s dream continued to face problems as Gelo went undrafted.
In 2018, he played in his father’s Junior Basketball Association, a league created as
an alternative to college basketball.
It was there that Gelo averaged an insane 52 points per game in his 4 games.
While it still remains to be seen if he’ll ever get his shot in the NBA, Lavar is still
hopeful.
And last but not least, we have Melo.
We recently did his Before They Were Famous so check out that for his whole story, but
let’s just say the kid is an absolute star.
From his flash on the court to his personality to his ability to win basketball games, I
have a feeling he might become the most successful Ball in the family.
Most recently, he announced that he will forgoe the NBA draft to play in Australia with the
hopes of becoming the number one pick in the 2020 draft the following year.
In terms of the Big Baller Brand, its faced its troubles recently after the family found
out that Alan Foster, one of Lavar’s closest friends and business partners was allegedly
stole upwards of 1.5 million dollars from the company.
And while its still up in the air whether the boys will sign with Nike or maybe they
already have, Lavar says that things will be business as usual moving forward.
If only Lavar would have had a fourth kid, then he could have gone with his boys to open
gyms and they could have challenged people to games of 5 on 5.
And there you have the answer to your question from the beginning of the video, lol!
So what’s next for Lavar and the boys?
Well, we’ll have to wait and see because this, is Before They Were Famous.
That’s all I’ve got for you in this video, let me know who we should cover next in the
comments down below and I’ll see you in the next video.
Dream Good Live Better, Have one Hecht of a Day and Subscribe to the channel help us
get to 3 million we’re so close!