LaVar Ball, the father of freshman UCLA basketball star Lonzo Ball, is at it again.
After saying that Lonzo’s UCLA team would win the NCAA title, and that his other sons LiAngelo and LaMelo, both UCLA commits, would also be one-and-done players before going to the NBA, LaVar made easily his most absurd comment yet to TMZ Sports Wednesday.
LaVar said that Lonzo will be a better NBA player than both Jason Kidd and Stephen Curry.
“Man, you gotta compare somebody to something,” LaVar Ball told TMZ. “But you can’t compare my boy to anyone. They try. I’ll tell you this. They say he’s like Jason Kidd. But he’s taller than Jason Kidd. He jumps better than Jason Kidd. He’s longer than Jason Kidd. He’s got a better shot than Jason Kidd. How you comparing him?”
And what about being as good as Curry?
“Heck no!” Ball said. “He’s going to be better than Steph Curry. Steph Curry’s really good, but my son is young, he’s got time to go. And you only consider him good because he won a couple of championships. What if he didn’t win no championships? He made some shots at the right time. But he’s not as young as my boy.”
Not only is this projection completely off the wall, LaVar’s description of Curry seems to indicate he’s not paying much attention to NBA basketball. First off, Curry has won only one NBA championship, not a couple. Secondly, Curry’s greatness has been largely defined by his incredible performances in the regular season. He’s a back-to-back MVP winner and the single-season 3-point record holder, and actually played some of his worst basketball in the Finals last season.
It’s true he has made some shots at the right time, largely because he is the greatest shooter we’ve ever seen, and yes, he is older than Lonzo, just as Curry is older than every other college basketball player in the country.
Still, LaVar believes when all is said and done, he will be proven right.
“You won’t be able to say (that Lonzo is a better NBA player than Curry) until my boy finishes his career. Then they’ll look back and think, ‘how did LaVar know all this?’”
I imagine they’ll be thinking something else, LaVar.