By Monty Pierce Jones, Year 11
There are two mindsets between which it seems the majority of basketball fans are switching back and forth. Some believe that he’s the most overhyped rookie to ever grace basketball. Lonzo is not shooting well (shooting less than 30% fg) and has one of the weirdest shooting forms to boot. The other inclination is that he will possibly become the greatest player of all time, although this idea is more common between hopeful Laker fans. He recently surpassed Lebron James in becoming the youngest player ever to record a triple double at 20 years and 16 days old. This has brought him back to being a respectable rookie in the eyes of a lot of fans, but I believe as soon as he has a bad game, which will inevitably happen, people are going to swap back to the “Lonzo is a bust” mentality. So why is he so polarising?
Well first of all he plays for the Lakers. Everybody hates the Lakers, this is because of three main reasons: They are historically a fantastic team (16 Championships), people hate all major market teams (the Lakers made 38 million dollars last year) and the Lakers have pretty terrible fandom, “real” fans don’t get in the door because, being an L.A based team, celebrities fill up the arena most nights. If you play for the Lakers, you embody the team and receive the hate that comes with it. The second reason is Lonzo’s father. People just love to hate his dad, Lavar Ball. Lavar once said that he could beat Michael Jordan in a 1 on 1, to which Jordan replied “Lavar Ball couldn’t beat me if I was one legged”. Lonzo’s dad also said that Shaquille O’Neill wasn’t in the top five centers of all time, Lavar ended up with a diss track from Shaq. This raised Lavar’s status and made him a household name, he even appeared on WWE Monday night Raw! Bill Simmons once said that Lonzo’s has the same look that I can’t wait for my kids to have in about ten years, he has a look like “Yeah, my dad’s crazy, I mean just a nutjob. What do you want from me? I love him, he’s my dad, but… I know’s he’s crazy… like… just… I get it” Which is why any criticisms on Lonzo based on his father’s actions are misplaced.
I personally think he’s going to be fine, I don’t think there’s ever been a rookie under so much pressure. Lonzo’s father has angered his opponents with his comments, which has led his son to being targeted by players. So, he gets NBA Finals Game 7 defense every night. He’s either the saviour the Lakers need, or a horrendous bust but he should not be as polarising as he is. Only time will tell whether he really deserves the criticism or hype.
