This season has been unlike any other for the Los Angeles Lakers. A team accustomed to constant media coverage, this year has been even crazier thanks to the addition of rookie point guard Lonzo Ball, and outspoken father LaVar Ball.
Well before Lonzo was drafted by the Lakers, LaVar was consistently in the media. By the time Lonzo heard his name called by Adam Silver, LaVar was a household name. Not only was he talking up his son, LaVar also had words about certain players in the NBA, and even bragged about his own game in his time.
Since the Lakers season has started, LaVar has remained in the media and now it looks like the team will be clamping down on some of that. According to Chris Haynes of ESPN, the Lakers will be enforcing a rule that prohibits interviews of player guests:
In what many employees at Staples Center view as the “LaVar Ball rule,” this season the Los Angeles Lakers are enforcing “an existing policy” that no longer allows members of the media to congregate in a section of the arena among family and associates of players after games.
Family, friends and agents wait for players in the seats behind the basket closest to the visiting team’s locker room at the conclusion of games. Interviews conducted in that designated area and near the tunnel leading to the arena corridors are now forbidden.
Although the rule is being tied to LaVar, the Lakers maintain it’s one that previously existed and will simply be more enforced for all player guests:
“It’s not a new policy; it’s an existing policy,” a team spokesperson told ESPN. “There has been more media presence in that area than before. That section is strictly for family and guests of players. It’s a privacy concern.”
With LaVar being critical of the team and coaching staff recently, the Lakers have made the decision to, at the very least, stop it from happening in their home arena. Of course, LaVar can still be spoken to at any other time so don’t expect him to just disappear anytime soon.
This is something many were afraid would happen when Lonzo was drafted by the Lakers and it has somewhat come to fruition. The Lakers are simply being proactive in preventing certain things from happening anymore.
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