Charles Barkley is not a fan of LaVar Ball.
The Big Baller Brand experiment seemed to have a vision when first announced by LaVar Ball, but all that fell by the wayside when it was revealed the company’s co-founder, Alan Foster, is alleged to have siphoned $1.5 million from the Ball family brand.
Lonzo Ball has since severed ties with foster, covered up his BBB tats, and his manager has thrown his signature shoe in the garbage.
As the Lakers guard has turned the page on the company, Charles Barkley stepped up for him and blamed his father, LaVar Ball, for the fallout.
The NBA on TNT analyst had this to say on Wednesday during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up:
“[Lonzo] should have been his own man from the beginning. You can’t let your family members try to piggyback on your success. This is his time. He’s a nice kid, he’s a good player. I’d like to see him healthy. But this thing has been a disaster from Day 1.
It was never going to work, and I feel bad, because this ol’ big mouth, jackass dad has put his kid in an awkward situation all year. Like I said, I don’t want to see anything bad happen to the kid, but I don’t like his dad at all, and this thing has been a joke from the beginning.”
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It wasn’t just this situation that set Barkley off, he also stated back in 2017 that LaVar “has no foreseeable talent” and has been exploiting his children.
“He represents everything that’s bad about sports. It’s all about him. You know I just feel bad for those kids because everybody’s talking about ‘he might be a good father,’ this and that. No he’s not. He’s just exploiting his kids. I love the kid playing for the Lakers. I don’t know the other kids. He’s all about Big Baller Brand. He has no foreseeable talent. He’s trying to make money on his kids. I just feel sadness for those kids because they’re going to do whatever they tell him to do and I just don’t like the guy at all, plain and simple.”
Lonzo owns 51 percent of Big Baller Brand.
