Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley made life very difficult for Lonzo Ball in the rookie’s first NBA game Thursday night, but Lonzo’s father is not going to let that deter him from continuing to talk endless amounts of trash.
With Beverley covering him most of the night, Lonzo Ball was just 1-of-6 from the field and finished with three points, four assists and nine rebounds. Beverley got in Ball’s face all night and threw some shots at him after the Clippers’ 108-92 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, but LaVar Ball was not impressed.
“Yeah, you shut the m—–f—– down,” the elder Ball told ESPN. “And your check still ain’t going to go no higher than what it is. Yeah, you shut him down. OK … Who is Patrick Beverley? He played all last year and nobody said nothing about him. Now we are looking at your first game. Why? Because Lonzo’s name is attached to it.
“So you got to be [all hard]. Let’s see what you do the next five games, if you are going to be pumped up towards everybody like that and go back to your 0-for-5 shooting and your two or three rebounds. Nobody is going to care about you. But you put my son’s name in it and you put my name in it, now you got some action and you got some people talking.”
To his credit, Lonzo praised Beverley after the game, saying the veteran “knows his job” and “does it very well.” Those comments came after Beverley blatantly taunted him on one or two plays.
But, as has always been the case, LaVar Ball refused to give credit where credit was due.
“Beverley is going to test [people],” he said. “He didn’t do nothing. But it is a better story. Lonzo don’t even care about Beverley. You never care about Lonzo versus Westbrook, Lonzo versus Harden, Lonzo versus Beverley. Who cares? It is a team game.”
Lonzo knows he is going to have a target on his back all year, and his father has a lot to do with that. He’s going to bring out the best in opposing defenders most nights, which won’t make life easy for him as a rookie in the NBA.
