It’s almost ridiculous to judge a player from one game, especially a rookie, but it will be hard for people who have been upset with Lavar Ball and his constant ramblings not to say “I told you so” after last night’s game. Yes, I said Lavar, not Lonzo. The son is paying for the sins of the father….which is anything but fair, but here we are. In his first regular season game as an NBA player, and face of the Los Angeles Lakers future, Lonzo Ball was faced with an opponent that most veteran players despise. No, I’m not talking about the teams Los Angeles Clippers opponents. I’m talking about Patrick Beverly. If you ask any NBA point guard to name the player they hated going up against the most, 90% of them will probably say Patrick Beverly, and for very good reason.
Like I said earlier, the son is paying for the sins of the father, which is anything but fair…in most circumstances. But, after Lavar Ball ran his mouth about how much better his son was than every other player in the NBA, it’s kind of hard to not take advantage of this “I told you so moment.” Mind you, Lonzo has never been braggadocious like his Pops. I do think Lonzo kind of believed the hype though. That he was going to be the best player on any court he stepped onto. It looked that way in the summer league, and at times it looked that way in the preseason, so why shouldn’t he think the real thing would be as easy? Ball was held to 3 points, 4 assist, and 9 rebounds in his pro debut last night. He worked for that sh*t too! He earned every bit of those numbers, regardless of how humble the final stats may look. Nothing came easy for Lonzo last night. It wasn’t just Patrick Beverly making things tough for the rookie at times. I saw some other veterans on the Clippers team purposely throwing some veteran weight the rookie’s way. I saw a few instances where big Deandre Jordan let Ball know that down low with the big boys was not where he wanted to be. It was just an ugly game for Lonzo Ball and the Lakers all the way around….but on a positive note….the Lakers are really bad. They’re the same squad from last year, just without Deangelo Russel. They have added no pieces during the off-season that will take them from bottom of the pack to at least the middle. Lonzo Ball will be given the freedom to do as he pleases on this Lakers team. And he certainly won’t have all bad games this season. There will be nights where he goes off, because I believe the kid really has talent and all-star potential. But there is also going to be a large number of nights like this one. Nights when a veteran has some extra motivation to want to make Lonzo’s night especially difficult. Once again, not because of anything Lonzo has personally done or said about anybody in the NBA. It’s simply because the child is paying for the sins of the father. The Clippers won the ugly battle for Los Angeles last night 108-92.
