It’s been quite a some time since he last heard from LaVar Ball, but he hasn’t given up on Big Baller Brand just yet.
And according to last Sunday’s episode of Ball in the Family, LaVar has gone as far as to ask his sons to go all in with their money and support the family brand.
Last year, co-founder Alan Foster was fired amid an alleged embezzlement scandal with Big Baller Brand, which ultimately led to the site going dark for nearly a year. Lonzo and LaMelo Ball publicly separated from the company while LiAngelo remained onboard, but it’s become evident in recent months that LaVar’s efforts to recruit LaMelo and Lonzo back to the brand have intensified.
That played out in the recent episode.
LaVar visited Lonzo in New Orleans for the first time since Lonzo said he urged LaMelo to speak to other brands on a Woj podcast.
At a birthday dinner for Lonzo, LaVar gave his oldest son a gift basket of all the new Big Baller Brand gear. Despite shutting down operations for nearly a year, Big Baller Brand recently relaunched its website — with LiAngelo and LaVar as the only Ball family members featured on the site.
https://www.facebook.com/ballinthefamily/videos/750247655458977/
The shirts read, “Family Don’t Break Up.” LaVar went on to give Lonzo a sales pitch about possible additions to the ZO2 line. Lonzo said in a mid-segment interview with a producer that he wasn’t with the brand and didn’t want to give his dad mixed signals. He wasn’t receptive to his father’s pitch.
At a different meal in New Orleans, LaVar went into another pitch for Lonzo, and things got weird. (Swipe Instagram post for video)
LaVar said:
“They said, ‘Man, LaVar, you gotta be just a father.’ I said, ‘What is me and Zo supposed to talk about?’ I ain’t never talk to him about no birds and the bees and all that (expletive.)’ I said, ’I talk to him about two things: Big Baller Brand and basketball.’”
He continued, saying he wanted his sons to pool together their money for Big Baller Brand:
“The more special you get, all these people will be coming in with all this other (expletive) because everybody want a piece. What we got going on is gonna be a billion-dollar thing — everybody gotta put their teeth in it somewhere. And as a family, we just gotta stick together. Like, OK, we good. Put your money over there. My money over here … Melo over there. And we put all our money together, that’s where the venture capitalists come in and say, ‘We got a hundred mill for y’all.’ We don’t need to have a hundred mill. We got it right here if we put our (expletive) together.”
In the producer interview, Lonzo said he wasn’t surprised to hear his dad suggest that idea. Lonzo did admit that he already lost a lot of money from the first Big Baller Brand experience.
“You could say that,” Lonzo said. “Depends on who you talk to.”
But the fact that LaVar even asked for that should be reason enough for Lonzo to stay as far away as he can from this Big Baller Brand relaunch.
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