Somehow, LaVar Ball became the story in college basketball. Now he has become one of the stories in all of sports.
The father of three talented sons, most notably recently drafted Lakers guard Lonzo Ball, LaVar Ball has dominated sports conversations and coverage increasingly because of his bravado, inane exaggerations and shameless self-promotion.
But I have a suggestion for sports news outlets: Every once in awhile, don’t interview Ball. Don’t invite him on your TV or radio show. Don’t follow him around at basketball tournaments awaiting his next outburst.
It goes against what journalists have been taught because he is a story right now.
But at this point, he’s a media-made Frankenstein.
The obsessive cycle is clear: TV sports show invites Ball to speak. Ball says something controversial and outlandish. TV show devotes segments condemning the outrageous comments. TV show invites him back. Ball plots to outdo himself with more over-the-top statements.
ESPN has been the guiltiest of building his platform — and then complaining about it.
It doesn’t take much intellect to understand Ball’s game.
Oscar Wilde said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” The famous quote “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” is closely associated with P.T. Barnum, a similar circus salesman from another time.
The ethos of those quotes appears to steer Ball.
Sports media either is being duped or complicit in the foolery as he hawks a shoe brand, promotes his athletic sons and personally thrives off the attention.
To a degree, the only difference between Ball and any other overbearing parent of an athlete is a megaphone.
Every time Ball sees a microphone or a TV camera, he’s inspired to improvise a new one-man show with wild antics and outlandish statements sure to top his last performance.
When he demanded a female referee be removed from a game in Las Vegas last week — to which sponsor Adidas foolishly complied — he was operating as much in showmanship as sexism. (That doesn’t make the sexism any less inexcusable.)
When he was on Fox Sports 1’s “The Herd,” he told co-host Kristine Leahy to “stay in your lane.” I may have said worse to her. She had spent a previous segment charging that his children — who have appeared polite in every interview I’ve seen — are “terrified” of him and being forced to play basketball.
Since that exchange, the show’s hosts and other media have devoted hours to his response, ridiculously claiming he threatened her. He has a pattern of being belittling and sexist to women, but the show — which is centered on controversy over substance — was disingenuous about the exchange.
They had an outrageous character on their show to be outrageous. When he behaved as anyone would have expected, the show’s hosts reacted with shock and scorn. Really?
Jay Bilas, one of the most intelligent basketball analysts on ESPN, wrote a thoughtful piece on Ball, condemning his antics as unworthy of coverage. But will his network listen? I doubt it.
It’s a modern media recipe that should stop. On political cable shows with unqualified talking — make that “screaming” — heads. In blogs yearning for clicks. On sports radio and TV networks looking for rating boosts.
This column certainly could be considered hypocritical, adding to a towering stack of headlines about a shameless promoter. If he’s at an event I cover, I admittedly will have a dilemma about how to approach my story.
When Ball has a referee ejected from a game, it’s certainly newsworthy. When he launches a shoe brand, it deserves coverage. An occasional comment on his sons’ abilities is appropriate.
He can be newsworthy. Just don’t create him as the news.
Every so often, consider passing on Ball.