'LaVar Ball rule' won't silence him ... not after it's gotten him this far
The Los Angeles Lakers knew exactly what they were getting when they drafted Lonzo Ball with the No. 2 pick.
Lonzo's father LaVar made it clear by mid-March that he and his eldest son were a package deal. Lonzo would throw the passes, LaVar would do the talking, and the media would chronicle every ridiculous detail. The entire ordeal was supposed to be a circus, and it would grab the attention of the sporting world.
If this is what the Lakers signed up for, why are they suddenly instituting the "LaVar Ball rule" to limit media access at games? And do they really think this will accomplish anything other than retaliation from LaVar?
The Lakers are foolish if they think they can make LaVar stop talking. After all, this is a man who built an entire empire by being a motor mouth.
The Big Baller Brand is on every sports network and even did 20 minutes of screaming gibberish on CNN. Nobody outside of Chino Hills knew who LaVar was as recently as February, but now he's a ubiquitous presence that transcends the sporting realm.
Who else in the world of sports was topical enough to elicit the attention of Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Stephen Curry, Stephen A. Smith, garner millions of views on a Facebook reality show, and feud with the President of the United States?
(On a second thought, it's fairly easy to draw a response from Donald Trump.)
Limiting media access to LaVar at Lakers games won't do anything to silence him. He is too irresistible of a character, too important within the modern sporting zeitgeist, and too central to the conversation to be silenced.
LaVar's existence as a celebrity is contingent on being relevant, and there's no way he'll surrender just because the Lakers said so.
This approach also assumes that it's the media that created LaVar, one espoused by Steve Kerr, but this was only true at the start. LaVar used his 15 minutes of fame to make himself into a self-made man that people flocked to, and that includes the media. He is largely perceived as a divisive character, but whether they hate or love him, everyone eats up every soundbite to further their opinions.
He wouldn't be talked about if he wasn't already talked about.
And look, this is 2017, not 1997. If he wants to be seen and heard, LaVar will find some way to do so. What's stopping him from meeting a throng of TMZ reporters for his own press conference outside the Staples? What's stopping him from streaming his own thoughts on Periscope, Instagram, or Facebook?
The people want LaVar, and LaVar will always find a way to give the people what they want.
The Lakers should expect a brash response from LaVar shortly, which is ironic because this is exactly what they wanted to cut out.
LaVar's schtick has always been to troll those in positions of power. He wants you to oppose him, to mention him, because relevancy of any kind is influence in the social media age. This is what he does.
LaVar may have told Lakers president Magic Johnson that he would let the team handle his son, but that hasn't stopped him from offering his opinion on how Lonzo should be coached, or who should get the last shot.
Again, this is what the Lakers signed up for. You take the good with the bad, and they can't just draw a line in the sand after the fact with a habitual line-stepper like LaVar.
Johnson wanted Lonzo and LaVar to make the post-Kobe Lakers relevant again. They've been in the headlines every single day since. Johnson would probably prefer good news over bad, but that's not really up to him to decide.
The Lakers didn't have any problems when Lonzo led the team to a Summer League title. LaVar was at every game, giving quotes to every reporter in sight, and the Lakers loved the attention. Johnson even got caught up in the hype and declared that the "Lakers are back" after Lonzo was named MVP.
But now that the Lakers are 8-15, they suddenly want LaVar to lay low? No, it doesn't work like that, and they know it.
(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)