Asked pointedly if he agreed that Walton had lost the support of players, Lonzo Ball said, “I don’t think so. I mean, he’s our head coach. We are going to play for him.”
LOS ANGELES -– Lonzo Ball disagreed with his father that Luke Walton has lost control of the Lakers locker room, but stopped short of an outright endorsement of his coach.
“I’ll play for anybody,” the rookie point guard said following the Lakers morning shoot around at Staples Center.
LaVar Ball told ESPN this weekend that the Lakers “are not playing for Luke no more.”
Speaking from a luxury resort in Lithuania, where his two youngest sons are preparing to make their professional debuts with Prienu Vytautas, the elder Ball made his comments to an ESPN reporter embedded with the family after the Lakers lost 108-94 to Charlotte on Friday night. It was the Lakers’ ninth straight loss.
“Luke doesn’t have control of the team no more,” he said. “They don’t want to play for him.”
Asked pointedly if he agreed that Walton had lost the support of players, Lonzo Ball said, “I don’t think so. I mean, he’s our head coach. We are going to play for him.”
Walton said Sunday that he was “fine” with LaVar’s comments, on one condition.
“My only concern with any of it is for Zo,” he said. “As long as Zo’s fine with it and Zo can come out and play and be, and it doesn’t affect mine and his relationship, then it doesn’t bother me at all.”
Lonzo Ball has insisted that his father will continue to speak his mind, but the latest chapter raised questions of whether the elder Ball was simply broadcasting sentiments that originated with his son.
“That is just his opinion,” Lonzo Ball said. “He has coached me his whole life. So, he is definitely going to have a strong opinion about it. That’s just what it is.”
Lakers executives met with LaVar Ball on Nov. 29 to ask him to tone down comments he had made questioning Walton’s rotations and overall usage of his son, the No. 2 pick in June’s draft. Sunday’s story was the first time, however, that LaVar had outright suggested Walton should not coach the Lakers.
“Even if you bring in a LeBron or a (Paul) George, he can’t coach them guys,” LaVar told ESPN. “What is he gonna tell them? He’s too young. He has no control.”
Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka attended Sunday’s shoot around but declined to speak to reporters. Magic Johnson, the team’s president of basketball operations, has been posting on social media this weekend from Lansing, Mich., where his parents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.
The comments reached Walton prior to a Lakers shoot around Sunday morning, which was attended by 500 to 1,000 fans as part of an American Express event. Walton was in good spirits, shooting around after the walk-through with Ball, Kyle Kuzma and assistant coach Brian Shaw.
Walton said he “would disagree” with the assertion he had lost the locker room.
“I don’t see that the players aren’t playing hard,” he said. “I think the players are playing very hard, we’ve been through a hard stretch, but they are giving us what they have and we’re going to keep working and we’ll be fine.
When asked about his job security last week, Walton said, “I coach as if it’s not” in jeopardy. On Sunday, he said he has been given reassurances from the Lakers front office that he has their support.
“I feel very secure in my job status right now,” he said. “We talk all the time. They’re 100% behind and supporting what we’re doing.”
