LaVar Christopher Ball was born on October 23,1967 and is an American businessman.
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LaVar Christopher Ball was born on October 23,1967 and is an American businessman.
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Lavar Ball is the co-founder and chief executive officer of the sports apparel company Big Baller Brand and founder of the now defunct Junior Basketball Association.
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Lavar Ball is the father of three basketball players: Chicago Bulls point guard Lonzo, Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo and shooting guard LiAngelo.
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Lavar Ball was a practice squad member of the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers in 1995, but never played an official regular season game in the National Football League.
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Lavar Ball was subject to both praise and criticism as he continued making similar comments, some of which involved his company, Big Baller Brand.
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Lavar Ball has made several appearances on national TV and has routinely drawn attention from major sports media outlets.
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Lavar Ball has been in the spotlight for his criticism of his sons' teams, most notably the Lakers for their treatment of Lonzo, as well as for his exchange with US President Donald Trump after LiAngelo was detained in China for shoplifting.
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Lavar Ball was born on October 23,1967 to Anderson and Maria Lavar Ball, and was brought up in South Los Angeles, California.
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Lavar Ball has four brothers, named LaFrance, LaValle, LaRenzo, and LaShon, as well as two sisters.
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Lavar Ball attended Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, Los Angeles, where he was a prominent quarterback on the football team and played basketball as a forward.
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In one season, Lavar Ball grabbed a total of 316 rebounds to break the school record.
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Lavar Ball first began playing college basketball at West Los Angeles College in the low-tier Western State Conference despite having little experience at the prep level.
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Lavar Ball then transferred to NCAA Division I Washington State and became a starting forward.
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On May 1,1994, Lavar Ball signed with the New York Jets of the National Football League as a defensive end.
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Lavar Ball has stated that he believes his eldest son is "the best player in the world, " specifically comparing him with NBA MVPs LeBron James and Russell Westbrook.
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On March 13,2017, Lavar Ball said in an interview with Josh Peter of USA Today: "Back in my heyday, I would kill Michael Jordan one-on-one, " saying Jordan could only foul him if he did a jump hook, that Jordan could not stop him one-on-one, that Jordan was slower.
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Lavar Ball was widely mocked for making the statement due to having averaged only 2.
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Lavar Ball's comments comparing himself with Jordan resulted in a significant increase in media attention.
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In June 2018, Lavar Ball later mentioned that he could take on Kobe Bryant one-on-one, although he admitted that it would mainly be due to Kobe's injury that ultimately took him out of the game in 2016.
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In 2020 Lavar Ball said on Shannon Sharpe's "Club Shay Shay" podcast that he would play a one-on-one match against Jordan on pay-per-view for $200 million.
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Lavar Ball later stated he wouldn't vote for Trump at all in the 2020 Presidential elections.
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In November 2017, Lavar Ball criticized Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton for what he thought was a wrong approach to coaching his eldest son, Lonzo.
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Later that same month, after an overtime loss to the defending champion Golden State Warriors, Lavar Ball criticized Walton again in a post-game interview with ESPN.
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Lavar Ball claimed that the game should not have gone to overtime and that Lonzo's teammate, Julius Randle, should have passed the ball to his son for the potential game-winning play and that the head coach should not have called a timeout late in the fourth quarter.
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However, less than a month later while in Lithuania in January 2018, Lavar Ball noticed that even though he considers the Lakers to be a good team, he thought they were no longer playing for their coach, resulting in them having the worst record in the Western Conference at the time.
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However, Lavar Ball would show some respect towards Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka on the situation, noting they're down to Earth with him while noting the problems with the media industry as a whole.
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Lavar Ball expressed his love for the nation of Lithuania, noting that everything about it is pure, starting from the people onward.
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Vytautas's head coach Seskus stated that the Lavar Ball family essentially "came for the show, not for basketball", and that it was a pity they did not understand the benefits of being on a professional team in Lithuania.
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On May 1,2018, Lavar Ball announced he would look into bringing his youngest son, LaMelo, into the league to help both upstart it and regain some lost reputation to his name during his time out in Lithuania.
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Lavar Ball has often been subject to criticism and praise from several media outlets for various reasons.
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One day after making the statement, Lavar Ball clarified by saying "I love those guys" and instead pushed blame for the loss onto his son.
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Lavar Ball's parenting style, which has produced a wide range of opinions, has been compared to those of Richard Williams, Earl Woods, and Marv Marinovich.
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Lavar Ball met his wife, Tina Slatinsky, at Cal State Los Angeles, and they married in 1997.
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Lavar Ball later coached Vytautas for the Big Baller Brand International Tournament, as well as a couple other exhibition games against other international teams.
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