Post: #1

There's an trio of talented players rising up the high school and college ranks. Their father seems to be cut from the same cloth as the fathers of Tiger Woods and the Williams tennis sisters.

Quote:One player to watch in this year’s NCAA March Madness is UCLA freshman Lonzo Ball. The star point guard is projected to be a top NBA draft pick after just one year in college, and his two younger brothers are dominating their high school competition.

Lonzo’s father, LaVar Ball, built a backyard basketball court with one goal in mind: to turn the three Ball brothers – Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo – into ball players.

LaVar and wife Tina Ball met when both played college basketball.

“So was this, ‘Hey, let’s have a family of basketball players?’” CBS News’ Dana Jacobson asked.

“To know we was gonna be playin’ basketball, you gotta have the right genes,” LaVar said. “I had a lot of short cuties, but Tina was tall – wow, ka-boom! So I was, like, ‘Man, you know what? I’m gonna get three boys.’”

“Tina, did you know this was what you were in for?” Jacobson asked the Ball brothers’ mother.

“Oh, that was the plan. He said, ‘Tina, I’m gonna have boys. I hope you didn’t want girls,’” she said.

And just as LaVar predicted, the couple’s basketball genes were passed along to their sons.

“I knew I had a brand once I had all three of ‘em. It’s gonna be the Big Baller brand,” LaVar said.

Of course those Big Ballers started off small.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/march-madnes...avar-ball/

The dad created a sports brand and, after not finding a corporate sponsor that was willing to co-brand with him, decided to go on his own, releasing a $495 sneaker. His decision has been panned.

Quote:That Lonzo Ball is going to have his own sneaker from his own brand is not unprecedented. The price, however, is: The going rate for the ZO2: Prime is $495 (and $695 for sizes 14 and up). There is also a premium, autographed version for $995 (again, $200 more for big sizes). And if those aren’t in your price range, the ZO2 slides are a mere $220.

If you can believe it, the sneakers were roasted on social media. Many people pointed out their similarity to the Kobe 8, others noticed the logo looked like a ripoff and everyone clowned the price point. Even Shaquille O’Neal and Stephon Marbury, who both have licensed their names to budget sneakers, mocked the $495 kicks.

http://deadspin.com/why-the-hell-are-lon...1794953264



His business idea is not bad (cut out the middleman and sell direct to what is sure to be a huge audience of fans), but the execution seems shaky so far. The dad is obviously driven and focused, so I'd give him a couple years to get up and running while people laugh and mock. He will have full ownership of products for what will likely be an entire product line and sales opportunities for at least 2 decades.

Post: #2

Props to Lavar and his family. Free publicity and taking ownership in their own hands instead of being a slave to the NIke's of the world. All his kids have to do is ball on the court. If they don't perform, the hype won't matter.

Post: #3

There's an aspect of chivalry that hasn't been covered throughout his antics:

His wife (and mother of the basketball players) had a stroke and was in the hospital for a while, and apparently it was serious.

During that time he was on ESPN on a daily basis, and he could've played the victim in an effort to gain pity party crowdfunding for his upstart shoe company.

Instead he deflected any mournful attention put on his wife and turned to preselling an obnoxiously priced shoe, to again be part of the headlines and to gain seed money to fund his manufacturing.

He's a marketing genius who did things the right way, and props for not using his ailing wife as a cash cow.

Post: #4

This family is a little too obnoxious for my taste.

Their high school team's style of play is an affront to basketball. Their defense is nonexistent (with games routinely playing into the 100's on both sides) and their offense largely consists of the younger Ball brother, LaMelo, chucking up stupid shots that any coach worth shit would strangle him for. Here's a video of LaMelo pulling up from half-court and getting blocked:




Then there are the outlandish statements LaVar has made, like claiming he would "kill Michael Jordan one on one" back in his "heyday." He was playing Division II ball back in his heyday.

The $495 pair of sneakers is just the icing on the cake.

Post: #5

He's definitely good at marketing so I give him that, but damn is he obnoxious as hell.

Post: #6

(05-06-2017 09:57 AM)Clint Barton Wrote:  Props to Lavar and his family. Free publicity and taking ownership in their own hands instead of being a slave to the NIke's of the world. All his kids have to do is ball on the court. If they don't perform, the hype won't matter.

The hype is going to eat them alive. Lonzo will have NBA players gunning for him on a nightly basis over comments that he didn't even make. And the middle son doesn't even look to be a pro-caliber player.

Post: #7

To any one familiar to hockey; he reminds me a bit too much of Eric Lindros! I'm always a bit wary when you see fathers stepping into the limelight of their children. I truly hope he doesn't stick his nose in his son's biz once he signs with the NBA! Pro sports franchises hate that shit!

Post: #8

Gotta respect Lavar Ball's hustle. He has taken full advantage of his son's basketball abilities and made himself famous simply by talking shit which led to crazy amounts of free publicity from ESPN and Yahoo. And now his new shoe company is getting tons of free publicity. Also, I guarantee he's gonna make a lot of money off these as there is an abundance of dumb people who will spend their rent money on a $500 pair of shoes because the shoes are "lit as fuck".

Post: #9

Much respect and the man while arrogant and obnoxious, is very intelligent. It takes irrational confidence and hubris to succeed big in business and in life so I don't fault that.

Also apparently those shoes have gotten 5000 pre-orders so 5000 x $500 = 2.5 million dollars already. Hopefully they can keep doing well. If the kids get to the NBA and perform their whole family will become big and become an empire.

Post: #10

(05-06-2017 12:30 PM)Darkwing Buck Wrote:  Much respect and the man while arrogant and obnoxious, is very intelligent. It takes irrational confidence and hubris to succeed big in business and in life so I don't fault that.

Also apparently those shoes have gotten 5000 pre-orders so 5000 x $500 = 2.5 million dollars already. Hopefully they can keep doing well. If the kids get to the NBA and perform their whole family will become big and become an empire.

Post: #11

I think its hilarious Nike is shitting on him for being a disgrace. Yeah sure, sign a big contract with the big corporation and you are honorable, try to be in charge of your own brand and your a selfish disgrace.

Post: #12

They did a thing on ESPN about these shoes, and I think the dad is a genius. If they sell roughly as many shoes as other superstars in the league, that family will be filthy rich.

Lonzo needs to be good for this to happen, but if he sells the same 200,000 pairs of shoes that the other stars sell, they'll make 100 million before production costs.

Lebron should've done this.

Post: #13

Massive respect for taking on Nike and Adidas. Even if he fails, the next guy will take his plan and execute it better, he has changed the game

Post: #14

Good for him

Post: #15

He loves his kids to death, he's a good man.

He should try to get on the phone with Trump and create some American Jobs out of this situation.

Post: #16

Basketball players up and down the country are now realising that they dont need Nike, Adidas etc. They could create their own shoe, market it for virtually nothing on youtube/instagram, post the products to the customers themselves, completely cutting out the shoe store middlemen, and keep all the profit.

The Big Baller brand is napster to Adidas/Nikes Sony Records. These big shoe companies should be very shook right now.

Post: #17

Shoes are way over priced. I bet a $200 price point would sell a lot more with the special edition versions costing $500.

The guys is no doubt overly obnoxious but way I commend him and his son for going their own way. It took big balls to do what Lavar did and hard work training his sons from such a young age. obnoxious but that worked so can't blame him. I think as long as one has son is a success in the NBA, they will all be rich.

Post: #18

Ahhh the Ball family, well I have some personal feelings in this considering my Lakers might have a chance of keeping their top 3 pick for this year's draft. If they do, depending on the order either I'll be happy with either one of Fultz, Ball, or Jackson.

As for Lonzo and Lavar, I must admit the shoe does look descent some say its a prototype built by a Chinese company considering Nike, Adidas, or Under Armor wanted to sign an endorsement deal with the kid. But $400 for a signature shoe for a player who hasn't done anything is a little outrageous. I really hope he lives up to the hype, granted he's not projected be the next Steph Curry, but even if his output is like a Jason Kidd that would be pretty great since it seems pass-first point guards are a dying breed.

Also I'm curious to see how he runs the P&R in the NBA, since he wasn't really good at it in college. That unorthodox shooting form also got some question marks, going to be interesting how he goes driving left with a floater or shooting a fadeaway with that weird form. Iunno, he seems to have his head on straight so hopefully he just goes out there and prove it because he's going to be the rookie with biggest spotlight on him next season.

Post: #19

The first thing I say to any girl I meet taller than me WITHOUT heels is if I can her pregnant to start an NBA family.( I seriously think this is the only thing that will make want to have kids)...some have said yes then when we I get them back to bang they ask do you have condom...WTF!!??

Post: #20

(05-06-2017 03:36 PM)raveking Wrote:  Ahhh the Ball family, well I have some personal feelings in this considering my Lakers might have a chance of keeping their top 3 pick for this year's draft. If they do, depending on the order either I'll be happy with either one of Fultz, Ball, or Jackson.

As for Lonzo and Lavar, I must admit the shoe does look descent some say its a prototype built by a Chinese company considering Nike, Adidas, or Under Armor wanted to sign an endorsement deal with the kid. But $400 for a signature shoe for a player who hasn't done anything is a little outrageous. I really hope he lives up to the hype, granted he's not projected be the next Steph Curry, but even if his output is like a Jason Kidd that would be pretty great since it seems pass-first point guards are a dying breed.

Also I'm curious to see how he runs the P&R in the NBA, since he wasn't really good at it in college. That unorthodox shooting form also got some question marks, going to be interesting how he goes driving left with a floater or shooting a fadeaway with that weird form. Iunno, he seems to have his head on straight so hopefully he just goes out there and prove it because he's going to be the rookie with biggest spotlight on him next season.

Don't make me laugh.

Quote:Jason Frederick Kidd (born March 23, 1973) is an American basketball coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Previously a point guard in the NBA, Kidd was a ten-time NBA All-Star, a five-time All-NBA First Team member, and a nine-time NBA All-Defensive Team member. He won an NBA Championship in 2011 as a member of the Dallas Mavericks, and was a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner during his pro career, as part of Team USA in 2000 and 2008.

Post: #21

Respect the hustle of the man even though I think he's an outlandish buffoon. In that way, I compare him to a poor man's (literally) Trump.

$500 for sneakers from some no-name college talent is never going to fly. If the crushing pressure of living up to the hype his father has set up for him doesn't get to Lonzo, it'll be Nike waiting in the wings with leaked reports showing that the Z02's are made with sweatshop child labor. At every turn, he's got to avert a crisis just to avoid being labeled a bust. That's incredibly difficult for anyone, more so a 19 year old kid. Maybe they'll sell a couple thousand pairs to hipsters and jokers who get some shit laughs from the irony... Unlikely that the Ball's have enough money to front a big production, so likely all of the sales will be eaten up by reimbursing the manufacturer. I'd be shocked if they even broke even on this abomination.

Established superstars already have that killer money shoe deal so I can see why Lavar Ball has been trying to flip the script for his son. Kevin Plank did it with Under Armour, when he was a University of Maryland football player and parlayed that into the sweat-wicking fabric UA popularized: but he also had all the money and connections that the son of a wealthy land developer and politician afford. Ball's got no backing, no business acumen besides being a consummate showman and no connections to help him with this venture... likely no eventual superstar son to bank on either, but that's more debatable.

Post: #22

His dad is a smart marketing man but they are stupid on business to an extent. It is smart going direct to consumer but they are silly with the price point. You are betting very fucking high on yourself to price your shoes more expensive than top tier Jordan sneakers. That move screams extreme arrogance or a shorty manufacturer deal where the price per unit is sky high.

Overall, if Ball lives up to ten hype he will in fact change the game. There comes a point though where pops needs to fall back and just be the master hype man and let some sophisticated people run the business side of the Ball brand.

What is the contigency plan is Ball flops and takes 2 years longer to reach all star status for example? What will be the long term business plans for that? His father has to much ego and pride to plan for that but from a baines standpoint it is needed.

Post: #23

Is the price point bad though? Sure the value isn't there, but if it were priced like a regular sneakers are you sure it would get as much publicity?

Post: #24

(05-06-2017 06:53 PM)Repo Wrote:  Is the price point bad though? Sure the value isn't there, but if it were priced like a regular sneakers are you sure it would get as much publicity?

Ding Ding. Dude should've charged 1k for them.

Post: #25

As a true hooper, I'm going to be the first one to say that I don't think Lavar Ball's game transfers to the NBA. He may be a scorer much like Kevin Martin was for the Kings and a few other teams, but I don't see him being an impact player.