Luke Walton offers petty response towards LaVar Ball

Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton punished Lonzo Ball for LaVar Ball’s comments. Sort of.

Over the weekend, LaVar Ball did that thing where he criticized the coach of his son’s basketball team. It’s not a new thing for the famed Big Baller and it’s a thing that will likely continue until all of his sons are on the Lakers and he’s the head coach of the Lakers.

For now, Luke Walton is the head coach of the Lakers. And despite Ball’s criticism that Walton “doesn’t have control of the team” and that “nobody wants to play for him,” Walton will remain the head coach of the Lakers for the foreseeable future.

As the current bench boss, Walton gets to make the lineup and rotation decisions. Lonzo Ball had missed six games with a shoulder injury prior to returning on Friday against the Hornets. In his second game back from injury, Walton messed with his substitution patterns, subbing the rookie point guard out early in the first and third quarters.

When asked why he had a quick hook for Ball, Walton offered up a moment of pettiness.

While Walton says at the end that he’s “just kidding” his mannerisms indicate that there is a hint of truth there.

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The more logical explanation is that the Lakers had lost nine straight games prior to Sunday’s victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Walton was in search of some sort of spark and playing Ball with the second unit, against opposing second units, gave them a matchup advantage.

But let’s not let logic get in the way of Walton clapping back at LaVar.