Free Republic

Not long after learning his son Lonzo Ball will be part of a blockbuster trade for Anthony Davis, LaVar Ball made his thoughts clear on what he felt the Los Angeles Lakers had just agreed to do. "I guarantee: Like I say again, it will be the worst move the Lakers ever did in their life and they will never win another championship," LaVar Ball told ESPN while at the Drew League on Saturday to watch his son LaMelo play. "Guarantee it. "They're going to regret it. I'm going to have fun with it. Because I told you all, it...

Full title: LaVar Ball: 'If you want to be a professional athlete, you don't need to spend 50 percent of your time in class' LaVar Ball’s Junior Basketball Association has officially kicked off, and he’s out promoting it constantly. Now, the idea behind his league is solid. It provides his sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo — and countless others — an opportunity to play competitive basketball outside of the NCAA while they make a push to play professionally. It also offers athletes a chance to make money while doing it. Except in a recent interview with SBNation’s Ricky O’Donnell, LaVar gave...

After feuding with his sons’ coach, LaVar Ball took his boys and went home. Again. As if this was ever going to end any other way. LaVar Ball yanked his sons LiAngelo and LaMelo out of Lithuania with two LKL games left in the season, according to local journalist Donatas Urbonas. And as almost anyone could have predicted going in, the issue was a spat with BC Vytautas head coach Virginijus Seskus.

LaVar Ball has another message for the Lakers: If you want to keep Lonzo, you’ll need to take his brothers, too. The outspoken, media-seeking father of the rookie point guard is adamant about seeing Lonzo’s lesser-talented younger brothers, LiAngelo and LaMelo, join him in the NBA, and seems willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. “I want all three boys to play for the Lakers,” LaVar told Lithuanian journalist Donatas Urbonas. “But if that does not happen, I’m telling you the story [of] what’s gonna happen first. If they don’t take Gelo this year, I bring back...

LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball didn't start for Vytautas in the team's 118-96 loss to Zalgiris on Sunday, and unsurprisingly, LaVar Ball wasn't happy about it. The players' father discussed his disappointment with head coach Virginijus Seskus, per Lithuanian journalist Donatas Urbonas: [see picture] The American duo combined for 44 points in the defeat to the defending league champions. LiAngelo led all scorers with 25 points, while LaMelo added 19 points and six assists. Unfortunately, the team continued to struggle, with its ninth straight loss dropping it to 4-18 on the season, worst in the league. While Vytautas was successful against...

<p>VILNIUS, Lithuania -- Flamboyant basketball dad LaVar Ball landed with two of his sons in Lithuania on Wednesday to begin their international pro careers, calling it part of their "journey" to the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers.</p> <p>A Twitter feud with US President Donald Trump shot LaVar Ball into the international spotlight in November.</p>

Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball bought his parents a Rolls-Royce for Christmas, which I’m pretty sure fulfills a Christmas wish LaVar Ball made when he and wife Tina had their first son 20 years ago.

LaVar Ball pulled his son LiAngelo Ball from UCLA on Monday, according to TMZ. LiAngelo Ball was in the middle of an indefinite suspension for being arrested in China for shoplifting, along with two other teammates...

LaVar Ball said he's going to send United States President Donald Trump a pair of Big Baller Brand ZO2s, the signature shoe of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball, "so he can calm down a little bit" after they feuded about the release of LiAngelo Ball from China last week. On Saturday, TMZ Sports passed along comments from the elder Ball, who joked Trump will "ease up" after he puts on the new shoes: [snip]

Progressives are desperate to Do Something about LaVar Ball, because his publicity bonanza has exacted a high price from the Left. In multiple ways. That’s why they’re playing the race card already, and portraying Trump as in the wrong (as he always must be in their world). First of all, President Trump is being victimized (as in dissed) after doing a genuine good deed. Every normal human being feels sympathy for him, which leaves the left feeling lonely and angry. But it gets worse. Much worse. Nobody will admit it, but the performance artist names LaVar Ball is satirizing the...

A father who didn’t think a couple high school basketball coaches were qualified to coach his sons isn’t stopping with the professionals. It took less than five weeks into Lonzo Ball’s rookie season for LaVar Ball to blame the Lakers’ coaching staff for not translating his son’s talent into production. Naturally, the basketball dad pumped himself up as the man for the job. “They’re soft. They don’t know how to coach my son,” LaVar Ball said of the Lakers staff in a recent interview with Bleacher Report. “I know how to coach him. I tell him to go get the...

Two men, both brash, both alpha males, both forever in search of a camera, both convinced that they’re incapable of losing a war of words. It’s easy to see how this escalates endlessly, with each refusing to give the other the parting shot. It’s impossible to see how it ends peacefully, or soon.Basically it’s the North Korea standoff of loudmouth trolling. An all-out exchange of nuclear blowhardery seems inevitable.In fact, I’d say a Don King putdown constitutes a mushroom cloud. Is this real life? It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called...

The feud between President Donald Trump and basketball dad LaVar Ball escalated after the Commander in Chief called Ball “a poor man’s Don King” and an “ungrateful fool” The Wednesday morning tweet comes after the pair continue to argue about Trump’s role in securing the release of Ball’s son from a Chinese jail after he was held for shoplifting Louis Vitton sunglasses.

President Trump sat down in Asia with the president of China and devoted valuable time to springing from jail three UCLA basketball players who decided to try to steal stuff from a Louis Vuitton store in China. The players themselves thanked Trump, but one of their fathers, LaVar Ball, decided to use the moment to diss the man who kept his son out of Chinese prison, where one can only imagine the conditions. “Who?” Ball told ESPN when asked about Trump’s assistance. “Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.” Trump, not suprisingly,...

The father of one of the basketball players who had been facing shoplifting charges in China downplayed President Trump’s role in having him released — and Trump’s response may be one of the worst I’ve seen yet. Now, to be fair, I certainly do understand why President Trump would have been upset by this. If you want to argue that LiAngelo Ball’s father, LaVar, should have shown gratitude instead of dismissal of President Trump’s efforts, then I’d say that’s a fine argument. What’s not fine, however, is this: Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved...

Latest installment in the ongoing saga of Everything’s Racist . . . Joe Scarborough has asserted that President Trump deployed a racist “dog whistle” when he recently criticized LaVar Ball. Trump’s beef was that LaVar had refused to give the President any credit for arranging the release of Ball’s son LiAngelo, who along with two other UCLA basketball players had been arrested for shoplifting in China. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

President Trump complained Sunday that the father of one of the three UCLA basketball players who were arrested in China for shoplifting had played down his role in winning their release, and that he therefore should not have interceded with China’s president. “I should have left them in jail!” the president tweeted. Trump’s tweet drew a quick backlash on social media. Many expressed incredulity that a sitting U.S. president would publicly regret having come to the aid of American citizens being held by an authoritarian government. Among Trump’s sharper critics was Rep. Adam Schiff, (D-Burbank) who tweeted back, “How can...

President Trump on Sunday responded to the father of one of the UCLA basketball players detained in China on shoplifting charges after the man snubbed the president’s successful effort to get the teammates released, saying, “I should have left them in jail." The president responded after LaVar Ball, the outspoken father of UCLA player LiAngelo Ball, downplayed Trump’s effort. Trump said while on his recent trip to Asia, at the same time the players allegedly shoplifted in China during a basketball tournament, that he had spoken directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the matter.

President Donald Trump says he should have left three UCLA basketball players accused of shoplifting in China in jail. Trump's tweet Sunday comes after the father of player LiAngelo Ball minimized Trump's involvement in winning the players' release in comments to ESPN. "Who?" LaVar Ball told ESPN on Friday, when asked about Trump's involvement in the matter. "What was he over there for? Don't tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out." Trump has said he raised the players' detention with Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) during the leaders' recent meeting in Beijing....

LaVar Ball, patriarch of the famed basketball family, has denied that President Donald Trump helped his son, UCLA freshman basketballer LiAngelo Ball, get out of potential shoplifting charges in China. Speaking to ESPN, LaVar Ball said “everyone” wanted to make it seem like Trump helped the family, and noted that people try to “make a big deal out of nothing.” Ball’s basketball family has a reality show, Ball in the Family, that airs on Facebook, and his brash style is regularly parodied by Kenan Thompson on Saturday Night Live. The family includes Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball; UCLA...