Lavar Ball (52) father of NBA player Lonzo, LiAngelo and his youngest son LaMelo is co founder of the Big Baller Brand. The brand is also co founded by Alan Foster and they sell clothing, sporting gear and sneakers. One of the main problems with this brand is that the prices are not reasonable. Sneakers started from $400 and clothing started from $50, sales were so bad that they had no other choice than to drop the prices and hope that people would start buying their clothes. The brand was starting to get off the ground until a scandal happened where Lonzo (Lavar’s oldest son) accused Alan of stealing $1.5 million dollars from him. This caused Lonzo to leave the brand because he wanted nothing to do with Alan. Lonzo is the only son in the NBA so once he left the brand so did his fans which put the brand in a bad spot.
On an episode of “Ball In The Family” Lavar and Lonzo got into a disagreement over the brand’s name. Lonzo suggested that his father should change the name due to the scandal with Alan Foster. According to ftw.usatoday.com Lavar then said to his son “When I come out with a name and somebody asks me to change it, that’s like people saying change Lonzo’s name to Alfonzo on the fact that he been damaged goods for the past 2 years.” Many people found this comment to be very disrespectful because when Lonzo first joined the Lakers his father had nothing but nice comments to say about him. Now that Lonzo has been traded to the New Orleans Pelicans and just got off from an injury he was called damaged goods by his father. Lavar is a Free rider, which is someone who benefits from people around them but gives back little to nothing in return. Lavar is not in the NBA and he has never played basketball professionally but he continues to stay relevant and make money off of Lonzo. Since his Lonzo made it to the NBA Lavar has managed to start his Big Baller Brand. Lavar is ultimately making money because his son plays basketball professionally. Lonzo is working for his money and Lavar is riding on his son’s coat tail. Instead of Lavar saying that to his son he should’ve been more supportive of him being that the Lakers was his son’s dream team and his son is the reason why he is making so much money.
At this meeting Lonzo went on to ask a partner of the brand what he thinks. Lavar immediately shut it down and said “I don’t care what he thinks.” Lavar is only Lonzo’s father but he spoke to the other three men at the table as if they were his sons. The men said nothing and they just listened to Lavar rant. Obedience is when an authority gives orders and people comply to it without questioning what they were told. This situation shows obedience because Lavar was rude and dismissive to anyone else’s ideas but his own and it showed. Lavar is the head of this company so this allows him to say and do what he wants because he is the boss. One of the factors that causes people to be obedient is legitimate authority. Lavar has legitimate authority over the men at the table which causes them to not say much because Lavar has the power to fire them at any given time. Which essentially leads the men to listen to him even if they don’t agree with what he is saying
Nesbitt, Andy, and Email. “Lonzo Ball Needs to Finally Ditch LaVar Ball after Being Called ‘Damaged Goods’.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 17 Sept. 2019, ftw.usatoday.com/2019/09/lonzo-ball-needs-to-finally-ditch-lavar-ball-after-being-called-damaged-goods.
I agree with your statement calling Lavar Ball a “free rider” because he is not a part of any other successes other than the family name television show and the brand opening line – that is going under. His son was able to make it in the NBA and he feeds off his energy of success in that way, other than putting him on a pedestal like he has since the beginning of them finding their names to social media and society, he put his son down by saying what he said about his name and the change of name for the brand. The obedience given in this statement shows a negative effect on Lavar Ball’s character completely, making himself look bad as well as other people around him a sort of weird vibe when a topic is approached and he think he is the highest authority figure to give his say and no one else.