The Los Angeles Lakers have been rebuilding around a core of young players who have changed the energy around the team. Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart have been roasting each other on social media, though it’s clearly all in good fun. Kids being kids.
That is, until it goes too far. Eyebrows were raised when Ball released a diss track that mentioned Kuzma not knowing his biological father, which many felt pushed things past playfulness and into an offensive realm. The Lakers reportedly stepped in and asked them to tone it down.
Kuzma has stated that everything is fine between he and Ball and that the track didn’t escalate anything, and he isn’t the only one that didn’t see anything wrong with it. Former Laker Nick Young spoke to ESPN and gave his take on the situation:
“The track was pretty good, but I am kind of mad because I wanted to do a diss track on Draymond Green and he kind of beat me to it,” said Young, who won a championship with Green and the Warriors this season. “They are just kids having fun. … I thought they were just playing around,” Young said. “Me and Draymond have been like that all year. I think they are just enjoying their moment right now. Don’t stop them. Y’all gonna mess them up. I think y’all gonna make them fight. They are just having fun.”
On one hand, it’s easy to see where Young, who has plenty of his own experience with controversy, is coming from. Kuzma and Ball are just having fun. It’s easy to forget, after all, that despite being in the public eye, both are still very much in the process of growing up.
From the Lakers perspective, however, their players represent not just themselves but the team and the brand as well.
Having any sort of controversy isn’t fun to deal with, but that was particularly true when free agency was set to begin. After all, the Lakers had grand visions of signing LeBron James and/or Paul George as well.
The Lakers ultimately landed James, and by all accounts he’s been impressed by the team’s young core. The diss track presumably not withstanding.
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