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Earlier today, LaVar Ball caused a bit of a stir in the NBA community after he bashed Lakers head coach Luke Walton amid a nine game losing streak in an interview with ESPN.
Via ESPN
You can see they’re not playing for Luke no more,” Ball said from a spa resort in Birstonas, where he is staying while his two youngest sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo, get ready to make their professional debuts with Lithuanian team Prienu Vytautas. “Luke doesn’t have control of the team no more. They don’t want to play for him.”
“That’s a good team,” he added of the Lakers, who have lost nine straight games. “Nobody wants to play for him. I can see it. No high-fives when they come out of the game. People don’t know why they’re in the game. He’s too young. He’s too young. … He ain’t connecting with them anymore. You can look at every player, he’s not connecting with not one player.”
After Ball’s ESPN interview went viral, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle blasted ESPN for enabling LaVar Ball.
Via ESPN
“As president of the coaches association, I view the recent ESPN article as a disgrace, quite honestly,” Carlisle said before Sunday’s game against the New York Knicks. “Luke Walton is a terrific, young coach who is bringing along a young team, and it’s a difficult task. If you don’t believe it, just ask me. We’re going through that now and went through that last year.”
“In exchange for that, they should back up the coaches,” Carlisle said. “Printing an article where the father of an NBA player has an opinion that is printed as anything like legitimate erodes trust. It erodes the trust that we’ve built with ESPN, and our coaches are upset because Luke Walton does not deserve that.
Coaches are so pissed with LaVar Ball that they want their teams to remove credentials from reporters who choose to interview Ball.
Several NBA coaches plan to ask media relations staffs to revoke credentials of basketball writers who interview LaVar Ball, league sources tell AmicoHoops. Ball was critical of Lakers coach Luke Walton in comments made to ESPN.
— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) January 8, 2018
This is starting to get out of hand.