Los Angeles Lakers management, LaVar Ball have good relationship

The Los Angeles Lakers management of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have a good relationship with LaVar Ball.

The Los Angeles Lakers knew they would have their hands full when they selected Lonzo Ball with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. It had very little to do with Lonzo himself. Instead, they took on the responsibility of dealing with his father, LaVar Ball.

LaVar is quite outspoken. He has garnered multiple headlines with some of the outlandish things that he has said, even making appearances on CNN. When LaVar is on tv, or he has a microphone put in front of him, he provides quotes and content.

Some of the outlandish things that he says are in regard to Lonzo or his other sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo. He is very proud of his sons and wants the best for them. Sometimes, it puts immense pressure on them. Remember Lonzo’s opening night against Patrick Beverley and the Los Angeles Clippers?

Lonzo is used to his father’s remarks, so it is something that he can usually just brush off. However, LaVar drew some attention when some of his comments were directed at the Lakers, specifically head coach Luke Walton.

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Back in January, Ball said that Walton had lost the team. It was a quote that was partly taken out of context from an interview granted to Jeff Goodman of ESPN while Ball was in Lithuania with his younger sons.

That was not the first time that Ball was critical of Walton. The Lakers went as far as to ask LaVar to tone down the criticisms of Walton.

Comments like that can cause a rift between the two sides. However, the team and LaVar are on good terms and have a good relationship. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka touched on the subject during their exit interviews.

"“Rob and I have a good relationship with LaVar,” Johnson said. “He wanted to have updates on his son, we wanted to tell him how we felt Lonzo was performing. We were able to really have positive communication between the three of us.”“You have to understand that our main concern is Lonzo. That’s who we’re going to spend the most time talking to, but we only had two conversations with LaVar. They were both good and we moved on,” Johnson said.“He loves his son, cares about his son and he wants him to be better, and that’s what we want. We want him to be better. I’m not going to monitor him.”"

Lonzo improving on the court is something that everyone would benefit from. On the court, a more efficient Lonzo will lead to more victories for the Lakers. If Lonzo is playing better, the merchandise sales for Big Baller Brand will also reflect that.

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While LaVar has been critical of the team in the past, he has not caused a stir since the comments from the Goodman article. He has toned things down, at least toward the Lakers, since they asked him to in December.