Lavar, please keep this up the rest of the season. I want your relationship with the Lakers to be pure poison. If/when Magic fires Luke Walton, please rub it in to the max. I hope it appears you totally own him.
It's not that hard to shut up, but for Lavar it's impossible. Lakers should ban him from all team related activities, including attending Lakers games at the Staples Center.
i doubt lakers will be able to do that, considering his son is the face of the franchise currently. magic probably going to talk to him and try to stop him from talking to the media. it might work for a little bit but then I'm sure he'll be right back at it
Rick Carlisle: "As President of the Coaches Association, I view the recent ESPN article as a disgrace quite honestly," Carlisle said. "Luke Walton is a terrific young coach who is bringing along a young team. It's a difficult task and if you don't believe it then just ask me. We're going through that now. We went through it last year. ESPN is an NBA partner and they've been a great one. Part of that partnership is – the coaches do a lot of things to help them with access, interview and all those kinds of things. In exchange for that, they should back up the coaches. Printing an article where the father of an NBA player has an opinion, that's printed as anything that's legitimate, erodes trust. It erodes the trust that we've built with ESPN. Our coaches are upset because Luke Walton does not deserve that. Two years ago, he took a veteran team and led them to 24 wins in a row, which is an amazing accomplishment. Off of that, he earned that Laker job. To have to deal to deal with these kind of ignorant distractions is deplorable." He clarified what he meant by ESPN's role in backing up the coaches meant. "They should look at their sources and do a better job and determining whether they have any merit and validity or are they just blowhard loudmouths," Carlisle said.
I have a lot of respect for Rick Carlisle as an NBA coach, but his comments blasting ESPN for reporting what Lavar Ball said are complete rubbish. If he's going to defend Luke Walton by ripping someone for "ignorant distractions", it should be Lavar Ball. ESPN didn't say the comments were valid and they also named the source, which allows the public to opine on veracity. This is exactly what they should do. Shooting the messenger is never a good idea, especially when it's the press (yes, even ESPN ) just doing their job. Not a coherent moment for Carlisle. I think he will clarify fairly soon.
This is a tough one because I agree with you in many ways, but ESPN is also partly responsible for creating this Lavar Ball fiasco. Carlisle is completely wrong in my opinion in that ESPN or any "NBA partner" should back up the coaches, but ESPN (and others as well) are blowing up this guy's every word. They're making him the discussion, in my opinion, by getting Lavar's words and then taking them for comments to the players and coaches. But this is also today's media world -- Skip Bayless, Stephen A. Smith, Charles Barkley ... say something outlandish and it gets the most attention. ESPN does this and FS1 is deserately trying to copy the model. Strong, reasoned analysis doesn't get the attention it deserves... today's world just doesn't have the attention span for it. As for Lavar, this guy needs to go away. He needs to get zero attention. He is just an awful dude, blaming everyone and everything for his kids' problems. He's the worst stereotype of the AAU culture parent. Players get away with AAU culture nonsense but it totally sucks that parents are able to pull this crap in a professional league. It will never happen but I wouldn't mind seeing the Lakers dump Lonzo to the smallest market imaginable. Full disclosure: I don't like the Lakers, Lonzo, Lavar, Walton, Carlisle or ESPN.
@Clutch, has Lavar been banned from CF? Haven't seen his posts for a while, but his posting is kind of intermittent.
I agree. ESPN is actively supporting this idiotic discussion. It is similar to the role the Media played in last years election. ESPN should determine if something is actually newsworthy. And the opinion of the father of a mediocre rookie is not newsworthy. However since everything is about money, and people will read these type of garbage articles they will print it anyway. That being said it couldn't happen to a nicer team Good of Carlisle to stand up to them. (that being said I do not agree with Carlisle that media should not criticize coaches).
I agree with Carlisle. ESPN knows exactly why they featured Lavar's opinion disparaging Luke, because it will get them the most attention, it's not because it brings any journalistic value to any reader whatsoever. Have to say this is one of the more outstanding acts by a coach (mav or not) in a season of over the top coach acts.
First of all Lavar Ball is a nobody while EsPN is the biggest new outlet in the world. ESPN didnt interview Ben Simmon's dad and asked about his thoughts on The Process so why are they taking comments from Lavar now? Since he worked there Carlisle was expressing his dismay and disappointment that ESPN would actually listen to Ball in the first place. Secondly ESPN had no other proof other than what Ball has said. There was no attempt to talk to Walton or even Lakers players anonymously its just here's what Ball said. That indirectly tells everyone that Ball is an expert and there doesn't need to be a 2nd opinion on what he says just take it at face value. That would be fine if he was Jordan or Lebron or whoever, but Ball is a nobody. His son isn't even doing well and looks like a bust! All he has is his shoe brand which is betting on ball becoming a star. If Ball becomes a bust who will buy that crap?
Lonzo Ball speaks on his fathers recents comments about Luke Walton and how he'll "play for anyone" Later on when someone else brings up the topic again Lonzo says "My job is to play basketball, I don't decide who the coach is."
Give me a break. The majority of NBA fans have a negative view of Lavar Ball and understand he is just voicing his opinion (or spouting nonsense for the umpteenth time). ESPN did NOT "indirectly tell everyone that Ball is an expert". That's complete nonsense. During training camp, how many people took Lavar to be an expert when he said Lonzo would be better than Magic? What about when he predicted the Lakers were going to win 50 games? The guy has made a fool of himself many times over. Couple of other things from other posts: I feel dirty defending ESPN while criticizing a great coach like Rick Carlisle. Yes, ESPN helped create the frenzy around Lavar. They deserve major criticism for that. I ripped them pretty hard about it.
What do you expect him to say? "Yeah, Luke has lost us." or "My dad is a dumbass." Lavar should be ashame of himself, forcing his kid to answer this kind of questions. But I know he has no shame.
