LaVar Ball has made it clear what he wants to happen with his younger son LaMelo when he makes it to the NBA. A couple of weeks ago he stated he didn’t want his son to go to Golden State and now he’s asking for more when Melo lands in the league.
According to LaVar, his son shouldn’t start his NBA career as a bench player like Kawhi Leonard or Giannis Antetokounmpo, two of the biggest stars in the league right now. For the Ball patriarch, Melo shouldn’t follow that path; instead, he believes LaMelo should be a starter, just like Michael Jordan when he arrived in the association.
“I’m not even worried about the No. 1, No. 3, none of that stuff matters,” Ball said, as per USA Today. “This is the one thing that I hope goes on is a coach believes in him and let him do what he does.”
Going to the Warriors, Melo would have the chance to learn from Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson but the elder Ball doesn’t want any of that. He wants his kid to be a starter and nothing else.
“Just like people was trying to tell me when Golden State was saying ‘Is it ok if Melo comes off the bench and learns?’ and all this stuff and I was ‘Nah.’ People was telling me Well ‘Kawhi, he came off the bench. Giannis came off the bench.’ Ok. Michael Jordan didn’t come off the bench.”
That is correct, His Airness never came off the bench but that happened because he was in a very bad team with little to nothing to offer. He’d take that team to the top in a couple of years. We don’t know if that is what LaVar believes his son is capable of doing. All we know is that he doesn’t want Melo to join the Warriors and be a substitute.
Still, as time has shown with Lonzo, his opinion won’t matter a lot for the team that picks Melo.
