When you really follow basketball, it’s very hard to spend a week, or even a day, without hearing crazy news from the Ball family. Lonzo, drafted by the Lakers in 2017, LiAngelo, an NBA prospect for the 2018 draft, and Lamelo, the youngest brother, are the three sons of Lavar Ball, who has been making the national headlines almost every day with his bold predictions about all his sons being drafted by the Lakers.
While it is true that Lonzo, LiAngelo and Lamelo are very talented basketball players, it looks like the Ball brothers would be just as successful even if they stopped playing basketball, as the hype that their father created around them has turned the Ball brothers into global figures.
Everything began in 2017, before the NBA draft, when Lavar told everyone that his oldest son Lonzo was going to be drafted by the LA Lakers. At that time, no one believed Lavar; people were making fun of him, and he was never taken seriously while being interviewed. From selling Lonzo's signature shoes for $495 (compared to $185 for the LeBron 15s and $130 for the Curry 4s) to affirming that his oldest son was already better than Steph Curry, Lavar was considered as a joke by ESPN reporters, who enjoyed interviewing him because it made the public laugh.
However, when with the second pick in the 2017 NBA draft, the LA Lakers selected Lonzo Ball, everything changed, because the man that once seemed so irrational that he thought he could beat Michael Jordan proved himself to be right.
Thus, everyone began to take Lavar Ball more seriously, which allowed him to expand the popularity of his family. He started by creating his own reality show, called ‘Ball in the family’, which is getting millions of views on Facebook. He also increased the popularity of his brand, called Big Baller Brand (BBB), by making a signature shoe for his youngest son, Lamelo, who at 16 years old, became the youngest player in history to ever have his own signature shoe. In addition, with Lonzo dropping several songs such as Super Saiyan and Get Off and with Lamelo becoming a sensation on Instagram with almost 4 million followers, the popularity of the Ball family continued to increase exponentially during the following month. And as if that isn’t enough, Lavar is also creating his own basketball league for future NBA players: the Junior Basketball Association (JBA).
Nowadays, the main source of popularity for the Ball family isn’t basketball anymore; it is rather the family brand BBB and the reality show that make the Ball brothers shine to the eyes of the public.
And now, whatever the Ball family does, as insignificant as it can be, it is always all over the news. For example, a few month ago, the internet went crazy just because Lonzo had a haircut. Similarly, the fact that LiAngelo, who declared for the 2018 NBA draft, made national headlined by NOT being invited to the NBA Combine just shows how successful Lavar has been in creating hype all around his sons.
I think the example of the Ball family shows that success isn’t necessarily attained though talent. No matter how talented you are, it is always possible to become successful because success is not a matter of what you are but of what people think you can be, which is what Lavar Ball used to reach his current success. Through is crazy interviews, he made everyone believe that his sons were the best players, even though Lonzo isn’t in the Rookie of the Year talks and LiAngelo isn’t even sure to make the NBA. Well done, Lavar!