Getty Durant shoots a jumper over Lonzo Ball during a 2018 matchup.
LaVar Ball, father of Lonzo and LaMelo Ball is known as a professional instigator when it comes to his opinions on the game of basketball. “My son (LaMelo) will beat Steph Curry one-on-one,” and “I can beat Michael Jordan I’ve never lost,” are just a couple of the brash quotes to come from the Big Baller Brand CEO over the years. So it came as no surprise when LaVar and Nets’ Forward Kevin Durant got into a heated exchange during a recent episode of Kevin Durant‘s podcast The ETCs.
Lavar Thinks He Can Be a Head Coach in the NBA
As one would expect, the conversation was focused mostly on Lonzo, LaMelo, and LiAngelo and being an NBA dad. But if you know LaVar he had to throw in a couple of his hoops theories. Ball is a person who believes he can do whatever he sets his mind to including being a head coach in the NBA. “Hey, don’t let me be no coach in the NBA. Why? I’m gonna be the first sucker to press,” Ball said per a transcript from Yahoo! Sports. “‘You can’t press!’ Somebody is gonna get tired. You can say what you want, but somebody [is] gonna get tired, and it ain’t gonna be us.”
Durant Disagrees With LaVar
Durant vehemently disagreed with LaVar. “You’re not pressing no point guard, no starting point guard in the league right now. I don’t believe that’s happening,” said Durant.
“I’ll overplay, you’re gonna have to throw that ball — I guarantee you,” Ball said. “You know why they don’t press? Because that’s the word. See, you are putting it out there, too. Can’t press, point guard’s too good. Yeah, you might get through 20 times, but we see what you are gonna do the other 40 times. I’ll tell you that.”
Durant, being a two time NBA Champion and former league MVP clearly has more knowledge about the current NBA than Ball. Aside from the obvious, the issue with LaVar’s theory is that the success in the NBA game is centered around making adjustments and the good coaches know how to make them well. Once a head coach has figured out how to put his point guard in a position to beat the press the guard essentially has a clear lane to the basket once he passes half court. Still, LaVar could not be swayed by the two-time Finals MVP. “I’m gonna say to you this: every time you suckers losing, they don’t know how to press the whole time, that’s why,” Ball said. “My philosophy is this: don’t wait ’til you get down to press. How about we do it the whole game. And then it’s a shock in the NBA. … If you already play like that when you’re starting the game, you’re already in desperation, so it lasts the whole time. It would be different, but I love when they say that would never work.”
It was at this point of the interview where Durant realized just how stubborn Ball was with his convictions, so he rightfully conceded. “Yeah, you usually make it work,”Durant said. “So, we’ll see.”
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