Lavar Ball has spent much of 2017 talking. For the most part, he’s touted the athletic skills of himself and his sons, notably UCLA basketball star Lonzo Ball.
Ball is, in fact, a former professional football player. But what kind of athlete was he? According to former London Monarchs teammate Kenny McEntyre, Ball was a solid athlete, but not much of a player.
“Man, he’s talking all that junk — and he was garbage,” said McEntyre, via Natalie Weiner, Bleacher Report. “Personally, I think the most athletic people in the world are basketball players, and he actually wasn’t a bad athlete, to be honest with you. But he was no comparison to what his kids are — let’s just put it like that.”
Still, Ball made an impression on McEntyre. The same can not be said about another former Monarchs teammate, Damon Baldwin.
“I kept seeing his name in the news, and never once, until you reached out to me, did I think, ‘That was my teammate,'” he said, per Weiner.
That may seem harsh, but Ball has certainly opened himself up for critique.
It’s been a rare day in 2017 that did not feature Ball saying something about himself or his son. Ball has compared his son favorably to Stephen Curry and said that he could beat Michael Jordan in a game of one-on-one, which a teammate vehemently disagreed with.
One thing is absolutely sure, though. Ball is not making these comments to be ignored. He wants the publicity. From that regard, he’s succeeding in a big way.