LaVar Ball

Ball was born on October 23, 1967, to Anderson and Maria Ball, and was brought up in South Los Angeles, California. He is considered the middle child of his family. He has four brothers, named LaFrance, LaValle, LaRenzo, and LaShon, as well as two sisters. Ball attended Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, Los Angeles, where he was a quarterback on the football team and a forward in basketball. He stood 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) and weighed 250 lbs (113 kg) by college. Aside from sports, Ball majored in criminal justice at college and had hopes of being a U.S. Marshal. His favorite basketball player when growing up at the time was Charles Barkley.

Ball first began playing college basketball at West Los Angeles College in the Western State Conference during the 1985–1986 season. During his freshman season, Ball grabbed a total of 316 rebounds to break the school record. In the season opener in 1986, he recorded 33 points and 18 rebounds against Porterville College. For the 1986–1987 season, he averaged 22.2 points and 12.0 rebounds. Ball then transferred to NCAA Division I Washington State and became a starting forward. In 26 games for the Cougars, however; he averaged only 2.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game. After one season, Ball transferred again to Cal State Los Angeles, which competed in the NCAA Division II, playing alongside three of his four brothers. During the 1989-1990 season, Ball averaged 15.8 points and 8.9 rebounds and was named to the All-CCAA first team.

College basketball statistics

Professional football career

Following college, Ball was invited to a football tryout and eventually made a return to the sport. After finishing his college basketball career, he played a single year of college football at Long Beach City College as a tight end. On May 1, 1994, Ball signed with the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL) as a defensive end.

Ball returned to the Jets on March 7, 1995, as a tight end and was then sent to the London Monarchs of the World League of American Football (WLAF) the same year. In the 1995 season for the Monarchs, Ball had zero catches, but did record 28 yards in kick returns. According to his teammate Kenny McEntyre, Ball was "garbage".

During his NFL career, Ball was also a part of the practice squads of both the Jets and Carolina Panthers, remaining with the latter team until late November 1995, albeit with no games played due to injury. His football career would come to an end after said injury, and he would retire to initially be a personal trainer in California.

Ball met his wife, Tina Slatinsky, at Cal State Los Angeles, and they married in 1997. They have three sons, Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo. Lonzo last played point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, LaMelo is a point guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and LiAngelo last played shooting guard/small forward for the Charlotte Hornets in the 2021 NBA Summer League. Both LiAngelo and LaMelo were previously signed with the Vytautas Prienai–Birštonas of the Lithuanian Basketball League from December 11, 2017, until April 25, 2018. His wife, Tina, suffered a stroke in 2017, which left her dealing with aphasia in relation to it. In June 2026, Ball revealed that Tina had filed for divorce. In a podcast, Lonzo pushed back on Ball's claims and stated that Tina was "damn near forced to leave".

After his youngest son, LaMelo, reached four years of age, Ball began training all of his sons to play basketball. They were taught many skills by their father and later played for his Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team, Big Ballers VXT. For a relatively short period of time in their childhoods, Ball also had them play flag football, with Lonzo playing quarterback and his other sons catching passes. Following an illustrious career at Chino Hills High School in Chino Hills, California, Lonzo became a star at UCLA. Ball's younger sons played at the same high school and originally both committed to UCLA, with LiAngelo briefly attending there in 2017 before joining LaMelo out in Lithuania later that year, as well as with the Los Angeles Ballers in the JBA.

Reality television

In early July 2017, Deadline Hollywood reported that Facebook would be releasing a reality television show featuring the Ball family. It would be a part of a larger project for the social media website to enter the video business. After several weeks, it was announced that the show, called Ball in the Family, would exclusively air on Facebook on August 31, with the following episodes airing every Sunday, starting on September 10. It was produced by Bunim/Murray Productions, which also helped create the reality TV series Keeping Up with the Kardashians on E! and Real World on MTV. One impact involved with the show was that a local Lithuanian pizza shop named Tango Pizza expanded their business and revamped their menus to fit more of the American cuisine over the prior Italian specialty, including a popular special named after LaVar that's the equivalent of a meat lover's pizza. On February 15, 2018, Ball and his son Lonzo competed against each other on Lip Sync Battle, with LaVar winning the episode over his son.

Lakers coaching criticism

In November 2017, Ball criticized Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton for what he thought was a wrong approach to coaching his eldest son, Lonzo. Ball mentioned that his son was focusing on getting the victory for his team in a November loss to the Phoenix Suns, before stating that the coaching is making him appear soft. Later that same month, after an overtime loss to the defending champion Golden State Warriors, Ball criticized Walton again in a post-game interview with ESPN. Ball claimed that the game should not have gone to overtime and that Lonzo's teammate, Julius Randle, should have passed the ball to his son for the potential game-winning play and that the head coach should not have called a timeout late in the fourth quarter. Starting in December, the Lakers would enforce a new rule, dubbed by employees at the Staples Center to be the "LaVar Ball Rule," to forbid media to talk with the team's family members at home games. On December 12, 2017, the Lakers' front office met with LaVar, asking him to tone down the criticisms on their head coach and help create a more positive environment for his son to prosper in. However, less than a month later while in Lithuania in January 2018, Ball noticed that even though he considers the Lakers to be a good team, he thought they were no longer playing for their coach, resulting in them having the worst record in the Western Conference at the time. This resulted in not only Luke Walton responding that the Lakers have "100% confidence" in his abilities, but also other NBA coaches like Rick Carlisle, Stan Van Gundy, Jeff Hornacek, Gregg Popovich, and Steve Kerr responding to Ball's comments as well. Other Lakers players like Kyle Kuzma also voiced their support for Luke Walton, with Lonzo saying that nothing's really going to stop his father from being who he is. On January 13, 2018, Lakers owner Jeanie Buss posted a Tweet showing her support for Walton alongside general manager Rob Pelinka, with Magic Johnson giving huge support for their head coach after their fourth straight win since Ball's latest comments after originally having a 9-game losing streak at the time. However, Ball would show some respect towards Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka on the situation, noting they're down to Earth with him while also noting the problems with the media industry as a whole. Ball would ultimately end his quibbles with Walton on June 13, 2018, where he mentions he's a good coach that just needed to figure things out during the previous season.

Allegations of discriminatory comments

On March 25, 2017, after Ball's November 2016 prediction that UCLA would win the NCAA championship, the team lost to Kentucky in the Sweet 16 round of the tournament, with Lonzo pulling a hamstring. Weeks after the loss, Ball said, "Realistically you can't win no championship with three white guys because the foot speed is too slow. I told Lonzo: 'One of these games you might need to go for 30 or 40 points.' It turned out that was the one game. Then once they get to the Elite 8, they're right there." He was presumably referring to his son's three white teammates Bryce Alford, T. J. Leaf, and Thomas Welsh. Lonzo downplayed the remarks, viewing them "as a joke." Brian Mazique of Forbes criticized Ball's comments as "plain racist," while David Whitley of the Orlando Sentinel called them factually correct despite being politically incorrect. Actor Michael Rapaport recorded a profanity-laced rant against Ball as well. One day after making the statement, Ball clarified by saying "I love those guys" and instead pushed blame for the loss onto his son.

Allegations of sexism

On May 17, 2017, Ball appeared on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, a show on Fox Sports, where his remarks towards female host Kristine Leahy were seen as sexist. He never faced in Leahy's direction for the whole interview, apparently trying to talk only with Colin Cowherd on the other side of the studio. Ball argued with Leahy about if Big Baller Brand should market to both men and women, asserting that his brand is not for women, and when she asked him how many shoes he had already sold, he said, "Stay in your lane." During the segment, Leahy expressed that she believed Ball was disrespecting women, and he responded by calling her a "hater" for her previous criticism of his parenting. He also commented, "She scares me. I don't look over there because I'm scared of her. I'm thinking assault right now. Leave me alone."

Later that day on The Herd, Leahy issued a response about her argument with Ball, saying, "So he was upset at me for what I said there, and that's completely fine. But you can't come at me and disrespect me and not look me in the eye and threaten me. That's just not OK." Ball, however, denied threatening her. The Washington Post reacted to the exchange: "LaVar Ball officially has moved from outlandish to obnoxious." New York Post labeled Ball's remarks on the show a "sexist rant." Following the incident, Big Baller Brand began selling women's clothing on its website. It also started selling T-shirts that read "Stay in Yo Lane." The magazine Complex called Ball's choice to sell the potentially controversial shirts "his most classless move yet." Leahy responded by promoting Girls, Inc. on a Twitter post, an action that Yardbarker called "classy stuff."

Ball drew further criticism for sexism as the coach of the Big Baller Brand Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team on July 28, 2017, at the Adidas Summer Championships in Las Vegas, after having a female referee who gave him a technical foul be replaced. After being called for the foul, Ball asked Adidas tournament organizers to replace the referee, who he had argued with on previous occasions, and then threatened to pull his team from the game if they did not comply. Adidas soon replaced the official with a male counterpart, but Ball was assessed a second technical foul later in the game, resulting in his ejection and an early end to the game. Following the incident, he said, "She's a woman who's trying to act—I get that she's trying to break into the referee thing. But just giving techs and calling fouls, that's no way to do it. I know what she trying to say: 'I gave LaVar, I gave him a tech, I'm strong.' That ain't got nothing to do with it. Just call the game." Ball also said that the referee needed to "stay in her lane" and criticized her for being "not in shape."

Days after the incident, the officiating group for the event, Court Club Elite, cut ties with Adidas. In a statement, they said, "Adidas and their leadership acted in a manner that does not parallel our views on integrity or professionalism, and neither should be compromised as they were in this situation." Adidas issued an apology, saying that removing the referee was "the wrong decision." In the fallout of the game, several media outlets and newspapers directed flak to Ball's actions. ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas wrote an article in which he labeled Ball a "misogynistic buffoon unworthy of my time." Kirk Herbstreit showed his support for Bilas's comments regarding Ball. A sports column in the Chicago Tribune called him a "media-made Frankenstein unworthy of obsessive coverage."

On June 20, 2019, Ball made an appearance on ESPN's First Take to discuss the recent trade of his son Lonzo to the New Orleans Pelicans as part of the return for Anthony Davis. When host Molly Qerim asked Ball, "Can I switch gears with you because I have a question here?", Ball replied "You can switch gears with me anytime.", which was interpreted as being sexually suggestive. ESPN released a statement later that day stating that they have "no plans moving forward" to have Ball appear on any of their programs again.