Lonzo Ball and the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the New York Knicks on Tuesday night with a special guest in attendance: LaVar Ball, who sat courtside at Madison Square Garden, along with Lonzo’s siblings and mother.
LaVar, who recently had Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson call a meeting with him to ask him to tone down his criticism of the organization, could be seen celebrating during Lonzo’s best plays of the night, including one particularly emphatic alley-oop on the break.
Lonzo played well in front of his family and under the bright lights of New York, scoring 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting to go with eight rebounds, six assists, two steals and one block.
While his play drew quite the reaction from LaVar, Lonzo said he did not take notice but enjoys his father attending games, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I had to get back on defense, I didn’t see him. I know how he is. Regardless, he’s always going to be turnt up. I like his energy, some people don’t. But, I like it.”
When LaVar is just being an ebullient sports dad who wants to pump up his son from courtside seats, the Lakers probably are on board with that type of energy, too.
But when he makes comments criticizing Lakers head coach Luke Walton or other members of the organization, it seems safe to say the team is probably much less of a fan of his presence. Still, whether one likes the way he goes about it or not, it is nice on some level to see a father as supportive of their son as LaVar is with Lonzo and his other two children.
LaVar may not always go about it in the way fans or even the Lakers organization wants, but when watching him celebrate his son’s achievements it’s clear that the reason he does it all is because of how much he loves, supports and believes in his children, which is an attitude everyone can probably get behind.