LeBron James’ Son Bronny Isn’t The Only Nepo-Baby In The NBA… Lavar Ball Is Back To Remind Us All
Look, I get it. You saw the headline and thought, "Didn't we surgically remove this man from the public consciousness back in 2018?" Unfortunately, no. Much like a stubborn case of athlete’s foot or a cockroach surviving a nuclear blast, Lavar Ball is back. And he’s not just back—he’s got a new Big Baller Brand shoe drop, a son who might actually play professional basketball again, and a fresh batch of takes so spicy they’re gonna give Skip Bayless an aneurysm.
For the three people in the back who just woke up from a coma: Lavar Ball is the loudest, most aggressively confident father in sports history. He’s the guy who claimed he could beat Michael Jordan one-on-one, said his son Lonzo was better than Steph Curry, and launched a shoe company that sold $495 sneakers that literally fell apart after two games of high school basketball. He is, in every sense of the word, a menace. And he’s thriving.
**The Comeback Tour**
So why are we talking about this man again in 2024? Simple. LiAngelo Ball, the middle son who once got arrested for shoplifting in China and then got cut from the Detroit Pistons’ G-League team, is now a professional basketball player. Not in the NBA, mind you. He’s playing for the Astros de Jalisco in Mexico. But Lavar, being Lavar, is treating this like LiAngelo just got drafted first overall.
“Gelo’s gonna be the best player in Mexico,” Lavar told a local news station last week, probably while wearing a hat that costs more than my car. “They ain’t ready for him. He’s a scorer. He’s gonna average 40. Easy.”
Look, I’m not gonna pile on a kid who’s just trying to make a living. Good for LiAngelo. He’s getting paid to play ball in a foreign country, which is more than 99.9% of us can say. But the idea that he’s gonna average 40 points a game in a professional league—even a Mexican one—is the kind of delusion that makes me think Lavar might actually be a performance artist.
**The Nepo-Baby Hierarchy**
This brings me to my main point, and it’s the reason this is going viral: we have officially reached peak nepotism in American sports. LeBron James is openly campaigning to play with his son Bronny, who is a fine college player but let’s be real—he’s not getting drafted in the first round without the last name “James.” And now we have Lavar Ball, the godfather of sports nepotism, making a comeback to remind us all that he was doing this before it was cool.
Remember when Lavar said he would “whup” LeBron James? Remember when he said his other son, LaMelo, was already better than LeBron? We all laughed. We all cringed. But guess what? LaMelo Ball is an NBA All-Star. He’s legitimately one of the most exciting young players in the league. So maybe, just maybe, Lavar wasn’t completely full of shit. Maybe he was just a 4D chess grandmaster who understood that if you scream loud enough, the universe eventually has to give you something.
**The Big Baller Brand Resurrection**
Here’s the part that’s really gonna make you laugh/cry. Lavar is relaunching Big Baller Brand. Yes, that BBB. The same company that couldn’t fulfill orders, had a falling out with its manufacturer, and basically became a cautionary tale in business school lectures. He’s dropping a new shoe called the “ZO2.5 Remix,” which is basically the same ugly shoe from 2017 but with a different colorway.
And people are gonna buy them. Not because they’re good shoes—let’s be honest, you could buy a pair of New Balances and a steak dinner for the price of these things—but because the Ball family drama is the only reality TV we have left that isn’t about housewives or survival.
The marketing strategy is a masterpiece of modern absurdity. Lavar is going on every podcast that will have him, saying things like, “If you ain’t wearing BBB, you’re wearing trash.” He’s calling out Nike, Adidas, and Puma, claiming they’re scared of his “innovative ankle support.” My brother in Christ, your shoes have the structural integrity of a wet paper bag. But he says it with such conviction that you almost believe him.
**The AITA Verdict**
So, is Lavar Ball an asshole? Yes. Unequivocally. He’s a loud, brash, egomaniacal father who has occasionally sabotaged his sons’ careers with his antics. But is he wrong? That’s the million-dollar question.
He predicted LaMelo would be a star, and he was right. He predicted LiAngelo would eventually play professionally, and technically, he was right. He said Lonzo would revolutionize the point guard position, and while that didn’t really happen, Lonzo did become a solid NBA player before injuries derailed him. So maybe Lavar is a broken clock that’s right twice a day.
But here’s the thing: he’s entertaining. In a world of corporate, PR-trained athletes who say nothing, Lavar Ball says everything. He’s the guy at the family barbecue who won’t stop talking about his son’s middle school football stats, but he’s also the guy who actually has a son in the NBA. You can’t fully hate him because he’s living the dream. He’s a dad who believed in his kids so hard that he bent reality to make it happen.
**The Real Story**
The viral angle here isn’t just that Lavar is back. It’s that he never left. He’s been lurking in the shadows
Final Thoughts
Having covered the rise and fall of many larger-than-life figures in sports, it’s clear that LaVar Ball’s greatest asset—his relentless self-promotion—was also his Achilles' heel. He brilliantly disrupted the traditional path to the NBA for his sons, but his inability to evolve from hype man to strategic partner ultimately cost him the leverage he so loudly claimed to own. In the end, the Ball family saga isn't just a cautionary tale about ego; it’s a masterclass in how fleeting the spotlight can be when you let the brand overshadow the game.