Parental support is always appreciated in all fields of life, be it athletics, academics or just life in general whatever. Parents are there to support and defend their children and many do it as if they signed a contract at the birth of their kid to do exactly that. The support can be good, but when does parental support turn into a parental loud mouth?
Anyone who has ever attended a high school athletic event, or even some collegiate events, has likely heard a parent of an athlete shouting and screaming and pouring their heart into it as if it is their game to win.
Again, this is not a bad thing unless it is taken too far. This is a subject that LaVar Ball has been at the spotlight of recently. His son, Lonzo Ball, came onto the UCLA basketball program and turned it around.
UCLA went from a program that sunk below .500 the season to being considered a top contender for the championship in the 2016-2017 season. At the end of the men’s NCAA basketball season, Lonzo Ball headed into the offseason as a front runner for the national John R. Wooden award and as a projected first-round draft pick.
It goes without saying that Lonzo Ball is an incredible player. Yet in many instances, the spotlight that should have gone to the athlete instead went to the athlete’s father, LaVar Ball.
The most recent comments from LaVar Ball were in support of his son but more than that, they were outwardly offensive to others in both the NCAA and the NBA. Ball directed a comment at Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James by putting down his kids.
He followed up this statement several weeks later with a comment about the reason his son’s UCLA team lost to Kentucky in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. His proposed reason had nothing to do with the shortcomings of UCLA or the strength of the No. 2 seed Kentucky or even his own son’s fall through. Instead he blamed the loss on “three white guys” who are too slow to pick up the slack in the game, while Lonzo Ball was riddled with a supposed injury.
While it is hard not to admire his gusto in making such remarks, it is also hard to find respect for someone who wants to support their kid so much they turn to insulting others to make his son look better — all from a man who had no substantial athletic career of his own.
LaVar Ball then turns into something of a pageant mom — a parent who pushes and burdens their kid with their own personal and unfulfilled dreams, hoping the offspring will live the life they wanted.
All eyes are on Lonzo Ball as he heads into the next phase of his career. Fans of the UCLA and Lonzo hope to see him flourish in the NBA, while many others in the sports world just hopes his father will figure out when to keep his mouth shut.
Meredith Spelbring can be reached at [email protected]