LaVar Ball, the outspoken father of UCLA star Lonzo Ball, has never been shy to share his confidence in his son’s talents. Early in the season, Mr. Ball predicted on national television that Lonzo’s UCLA team would be national title winners in 2017. A short time later he declared that not only Lonzo, but his two sons LiAngelo and LaMelo, both UCLA commits, would be one-and-done college players before bouncing to the NBA.
But his latest statement is probably the wildest.
When asked by TMZ what his take was on the comparisons between Lonzo and NBA stars of past and present like Jason Kidd and Steph Curry was, LaVar didn’t mince words.
“Man, you gotta compare somebody to something,” LaVar Ball said. “But you can’t compare my boy to anyone. They try. I’ll tell you this. They say he’s like Jason Kidd. But he’s taller than Jason Kidd. He jumps better than Jason Kidd. He’s longer than Jason Kidd. He’s got a better shot than Jason Kidd. How you comparing him?”
But will be as good as Steph Curry in the NBA?
“Heck no!” Ball said. “He’s going to be better than Steph Curry. Steph Curry’s really good, but my son is young, he’s got time to go. And you only consider him good because he won a couple of championships. What if he didn’t win no championships? He made some shots at the right time. But he’s not as young as my boy.”
OK, before we even dig into this, let’s note that the reason everyone thinks Steph Curry great is not because he’s made “some” shots (this is a obviously beyond a laughable assessment of Curry’s shooting prowess), nor because he’s won a “couple” championships. For the record, he hasn’t won a couple championships. He’s won one. What he has won a couple of is league MVPs, the most recent of which came by way of the only unanimous selection in NBA history. Never mind the all-time single-season 3-point record, the 73 wins, the through-the-roof PER, and on down the list.
Listen, Lonzo Ball is special. That’s something we can all agree on. And who knows, maybe he will be better than the Currys and Kidds of the world one day. Probably not, but indeed, if that does happen, it certainly won’t be because Lonzo is “younger” than Curry. Every player in this draft is younger than Curry, who isn’t exactly over the hill at 28. You need more than age on your side.
Still, LaVar says we’ll all look back on this one day and realize he was right.
“You won’t be able to say [that Lonzo is a better NBA player than Curry] until my boy finishes his career. Then they’ll look back and think, ‘how did LaVar know all this?’”