53-year-old LaVar Christopher Ball (born October 23, 1967) former professional football player and is an American businessman.
He is the founder of JBA (the Junior Basketball Association) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the sports apparel company, Big Baller Brand.
He is the father of Lonzo (point guard, New Orleans Pelicans), LiAngelo (shooting guard), and Charlotte Hornets (point guard, LaMelo): three basketball players.
LaVar played basketball at the college level for West Los Angeles College, Washington State, and Cal State Los Angeles.
Additionally, he played basketball and football while at Canoga Park High School. For one season he played football at Long Beach City College.
He had a total of 28 kickoff return yards and no receptions with the London Monarchs of the World League of American Football. Here, he had a brief professional career as a tight end.
During the National Football League in 1995, he didn’t play an official regular-season game but was a practice squad member of the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers.
In 2017, Ball began repeatedly making national sports headlines, after a series of bold statements. He claimed that he himself could defeat Michael Jordan one-on-one in basketball.
His early statements included saying that his son Lonzo, is better than Stephen Curry.
As he continued making similar comments involving Big Baller Brand, his company, he was subject to both praise and criticism.
He has regularly drawn attention from major sports media outlets and national TV channels on which LaVar made numerous appearances.
He has also been in the spotlight for his criticism of the Lakers’ treatment towards Lonzo and also after LiAngelo was detained in China for shoplifting following his exchange with the U.S. President Donald Trump.
He is 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 119 kgs.
Early life
LaVar was brought up in South Los Angeles, California, and was born to Anderson and Maria Ball on October 23, 1967. He is the middle child in his family.
He has two sisters and four brothers named LaFrance, LaValle, LaRenzo, and LaShon.
LaVar played basketball as a forward and was also a prominent quarterback on the football team. He attended Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, Los Angeles.
He went on to break the school record in one season by grabbing a total of 316 rebounds.
By college, he weighed 250 lbs (113 kg) and stood 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m).
Aside from sports at college, he had hopes of being a U.S. Marshal and thus LaVal majored in criminal justice.
While growing up at the time, Charles Barkley was his favorite basketball player. Despite having little experience at the prep level in the low-tier Western State Conference, LaVar began playing college basketball at West Los Angeles College.
Against Porterville College, he recorded 33 points and 18 rebounds during the season opener in 1986.
He became a starting forward after being transferred to NCAA Division I Washington State.
He averaged only 2.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game for the Cougars out of 26 games.
After being transferred again to Cal State Los Angeles after one season, he competed in the NCAA Division II while playing alongside three of his four brothers.
Career and personal life
After college, LaVar was invited to a football tryout which eventually led him to return to the sport.
As a tight end at Long Beach City College, he played a single year of college football after finishing his college basketball career.
LaVar signed with the New York Jets of the NFL (National Football League) on May 1, 1994, as a defensive end.
He returned to the Jets as a tight end in 1995 and was directly sent to the London Monarchs of the WLAF (World League of American Football). During the 1995 season for the Monarchs, LaVar had zero catches but did record 28 yards in kick returns.
LaVar was “garbage” according to Kenny McEntyre, his teammate. Following an injury, his football career would come to an end.
He would then retire to become a personal trainer in California.
At Cal State, Los Angeles, LaVar met Tina Slatinsky and they got married in 1997. Tina underwent a stroke in 2017 which left her dealing with aphasia in relation to it.
From December 11, 2017, until April 25, 2018, both LiAngelo and LaMelo were signed with Vytautas Prienai–Birštonas playing for the Lithuanian Basketball League.
LaVar also was an assistant coach for the same team during the fourth game of the Big Baller Brand Challenge Games.
Additionally, LaVar has coached Vytautas for the Big Baller Brand International Tournament for a couple of other exhibition games against international teams.
Controversy
On March 25, 2017, after LaVar’s prediction in November 2016 that UCLA would win the NCAA championship, with Lonzo pulling a hamstring, the team lost to Kentucky in the 16th round of the tournament.
Presumably referring to Bryce, T. J. Leaf, and Thomas, Lonzo’s three white teammates, LaVar said, “Realistically you can’t win no championship with three white guys because the foot speed is too slow.”
Orlando Sentinel, the primary newspaper of Orlando called this statement factually correct but politically wrong. However, on the other side, LaVar was criticized and called a “plain racist” by Brian Mazique of Forbes.
A profanity-laced rant against LaVar was recorded and shared by Actor Michael Rapaport as well.
One day after making the statement, LaVar pushed blame for the loss onto his son and clarified by saying “I love those guys”.
| Name | LaVar Christopher Ball |
| Born | October 23, 1967 |
| Age | 53 |
| Height | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) |
| Weight | 263 lb (119 kg) |
| Children | 3 |
| Spouse | Tina Slatinsky |
| Occupation | Co-founder and CEO of Big Baller Brand |
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