It might seem like an eternity ago now, but there was a moment when LeBron James Lonzo Ball were teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers.
What started as early optimism quickly spiraled into disappointment as it became evident LeBron just did not mix with the young core. That summer, Lonzo was sent to New Orleans as part of a package deal that would bring in Anthony Davis. The rest is history.
Today, not many thought goes into Zo’s time with the Purple and Gold, but it did recently come up in a conversation with the “Big Baller” father himself, LaVar, who laid into the Lakeshow for their mismanagement of the Ball/James duo.
“LeBron didn’t do nothing,” Ball said, via Bleacher Report’s Rob Goldberg. “It was just the coaching over there. Coaches didn’t know how to play LeBron and Lonzo together. The one time they did that they both had a triple-double in the game. That’s what should have been going on that whole time. It was just the coaching over there that didn’t fit. You saw they brought in one new guy and they won a championship. Just by bringing in AD and a new coach. It was that simple.”
The comments are a direct shot at former Lakers head coach Luke Walton, who has been on the wrong side of LaVar’s criticism before. Lonzo averaged 9.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game in his lone season with James.
And while we’ll never know how the two would have performed under a different coaching staff, moving on was probably the best thing for both sides.
