The tale of LaVar Ball has come out of nowhere, and in true absurdist fashion, his rise to fame blurs the line between reality and basketball fantasy.
LaVar Ball is here and no one knows why. At one point there was basketball and then there was basketball with LaVar Ball. It is hard to imagine the sport without him (you can sigh now).
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Similar to Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello’s metaphysical piece Six Characters in Search of an Author, a play that walks the line between reality and fantasy, LaVar Ball is a character that has appeared out of nowhere and is looking for his story to be written.
It is absurd, but what isn’t about LaVar Ball?
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Pirandello’s complex theatrical play is about six Characters that appear out of nowhere, interrupting a Director who is working with his Actors (the Characters and Actors are two different groups of people). When the Director hears the story of the Characters he is compelled to tell it.
After the Characters act out their story, the Actors try to emulate the story of the characters. The Characters are not amused and take over. The play ends with the Characters acting out the rest of their own story, which takes a turn for the worst. But was this ending an act or reality?
That brings me back to LaVar Ball. Is this an act or is this reality that he is bringing to our TVs and social media timelines?
In the summer of 2016, the word around the UCLA Basketball program was that they were about to get a jump start from an uber-athletic basketball player from Chino Hills, Lonzo Ball. The future for the Bruins was being written and the fervor was growing.
When Lonzo got to Westwood, the hype was real. Along with fellow freshmen TJ Leaf, Ike Anigbogu and a core which consisted of Bryce Alford, Isaac Hamilton, Thomas Welsh and Gyorgy Goloman, the Bruins turned a 15-17 team into the highest scoring program in the nation.
The Bruins definitely put on a show for the people. The talk was all about UCLA… until a character appeared out of no where.
“UCLA gonna win a NCAA Championship, you think I’m playin’?”
Who was this character and what was this bold prediction about? It was LaVar Ball talking to the media during UCLA’s Wooden Legacy game against Portland. The world would now know a lot about LaVar Ball and in a very short time.
LaVar Ball is the lead in his own play. But he is also the manager, the director, the producer, costume designer, lighting director and the star.
LaVar Ball is extravagant. He is loud. And no one knows exactly how to take his banter. He appeared out of thin air and no one had a clue what he would bring. No one knew his story.
LaVar, like the Characters, whether truthful or boisterous, has grabbed the attention of the spectators in this theater of basketball.
LaVar Ball is the lead in his own play. He is also the manager, the director, the producer, costume designer, lighting director, but most importantly, he is the star. But his story is yet to be told. We are getting the snippets of his timeline, but his story is nowhere near being complete. LaVar is not going away. Actually, he has just started.
With Lonzo beginning his pro career playing with the Los Angeles Lakers, LaVar and his Big Baller Brand have made it to the pros, but he still has his hand in collegiate and high school productions. His spin-offs chronicle the adventures of his two youngest sons, whose stories are also yet to be written.
This fall, LiAngelo Ball debuts with the UCLA Basketball team. The youngest, LaMelo Ball, will continue his reign with Chino Hills High School (he is also committed to UCLA). This story, which currently has no direction, is growing into a franchise.
So is this The Life of the Ball Family or The Adventures of the Ball Family? That all depends on what kind of character LaVar ultimately wants to be.
The media, including yours truly, is helping to write (t)his story, whether we want to or not. LaVar is a character that has forced himself into our basketball fantasy and he is not going away.
Things were easier before they were absurd, but now that they are, the theater of basketball has opened itself to another storyline, another era, another genre. LaVar Ball has changed the game. Whether he succeeds or not, he has changed the game.
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His story is going to be written whether it is an action adventure consisting of multiple championships or a melodrama where he fades into nothingness. He has grown past results. It doesn’t matter at this point. As John Ford pointed out in his film The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance, “when legend becomes fact, print the legend.