Los Angeles Lakers: LaVar Ball says Lonzo Ball better than Kawhi Leonard

LaVar Ball made headlines again because of the supreme confidence he has in his son, Los Angeles Lakers point guard, Lonzo Ball.

The Los Angeles Lakers have something they have to do deal with that other teams doesn’t in LaVar Ball. The outspoken father of point guard Lonzo Ball is not afraid to share his opinion, which has caused some issues for the Lakers in the past.

Earlier this season, the Lakers began enforcing a rule that was dubbed the LaVar Ball Rule. In December, LaVar was asked by the team to tone down his criticisms of the organization. Not even a month later, LaVar was critical of Lakers head coach, Luke Walton, saying he had lost the team.

Some of those quotes may have been taken out of context by ESPN’s Jeff Goodman. His access to LaVar and the family in Lithuania was cut off after the article that he shared at ESPN.

While things began rocky, the organization and LaVar sounded like they were on the same page recently. During their exit interview, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka revealed that the two parties have a good relationship. Both understand that the development of Lonzo is what is important in the long run.

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With LaVar spending time in Lithuania with his younger sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo, we haven’t heard much from him recently. However, he more than made up for it during an appearance on ESPN Los Angeles’ Best Of ESPN Los Angeles.

During the appearance, Kawhi Leonard was discussed as he is a potential target for the Lakers this offseason. To the surprise of no one, LaVar provided a sound byte, saying his son was better than Leonard.

"“Stop it! … Hell no. Lonzo, I’m gonna tell you what he does, makes everyone on the team better. Who don’t want to start a team with that? You put Kawhi on there, he won’t make everyone better. He’s gonna do his thing. He’s a specialty guy.”"

Talk about selling someone short. Lonzo had a good rookie season, playing in 52 games and averaging 10.2 points, 7.2 assists, 6.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game. However, Lonzo is far from the player that Leonard is at this time.

Leonard is much more than just a specialty guy. He is arguably the best two-way player in the NBA, taking home the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2014-15 and 2015-16. He has made the All-NBA Defensive Team four times and is a two-time All-Star.

What is possibly his biggest accomplishment is winning NBA Finals MVP in 2014 when his San Antonio Spurs defeated the Miami Heat led by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Leonard has worked tirelessly to improve his game. He was already regarded as a strong defensive player when he was selected No. 15 overall in the 2011 NBA Draft. Since then he has developed into a dangerous scorer as well, upping his points per game average every season in his career over the previous one before the 2017-18 season.

Leonard played only nine games this season because of a quadriceps injury. It has caused some tension between the Spurs and Leonard, leading to many to speculate that the Lakers are the favorites to land Leonard. The odds in Las Vegas put the Lakers at third on the list in part because the Spurs do not want to aid a Western Conference team.

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At some point, Ball and Leonard could be teammates. It would be interesting to see if these comments sway Leonard’s decision about Los Angeles in any way, as it was reported that LaVar could impact the Lakers free agency plans. Only time will tell if that is true or not.

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