LaVar Ball believes Luke Walton has lost the team: ‘They don’t want to play for him.’

LaVar Ball believes that Los Angeles  Lakers head coach Luke Walton has lost his team in the locker room.

The Los Angeles Lakers are currently 12-27 after snapping their nine-game skid against the Atlanta Hawks Sunday. While things appeared promising at first, the nine-game losing streak and Lonzo Ball missing time has derailed the Lakers season. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Ball’s father, LaVar, had something to say about it all, according to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.

"You can see they’re not playing for Luke no more. Luke doesn’t have control of the team no more. They don’t want to play for him,” LaVar Ball said.“That’s a good team. Nobody wants to play for him. I can see it. No high-fives when they come out of the game. People don’t know why they’re in the game. He’s too young. He’s too young. … He ain’t connecting with them anymore. You can look at every player, he’s not connecting with not one player,” he continued."

LaVar Ball has had a penchant for finding a way to be found by the media. Ball stating that Walton has lost the team, by his thinking, is the quickest way to get the attention back to him. Apparently, Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle has had enough of Ball, and ESPN for pandering to him.

"“Printing an article where the father of an NBA player has an opinion that is printed as anything like legitimate erodes trust. It erodes the trust we’ve built with ESPN, and our coaches are upset.”"

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Negative reinforcement is a very powerful tool to get the attention we want. LaVar Ball has accomplished this psychological tactic to the T. It’s great that Carlisle came after the media giant who, like other media giants, will reinforce those who don’t need any more reinforcement. Maybe, things will change for Ball and the Lakers after this.