Report: Lonzo Ball’s camp leaked injury news to prevent trade
By David Rouben
Adrian Wojnarowski seemed to confirm what we all suspected when it came to Lonzo Ball’s injury: that his camp leaked the news to prevent a trade.
LaVar Ball has been tampering with the Los Angeles Lakers far more often than Magic Johnson, yet only one of them keeps getting fined for it.
On the latest episode of Ball in the Family, Lonzo Ball was reported to have a torn meniscus in his left knee. But because of all the trade rumors that were swirling around, and everyone’s pre-conceived notion surrounding Lonzo’s family, the reaction to his injury was that of skepticism rather than concern.
Without any evidence to back it up, though, the skepticism came across as pure conjecture. But on the latest episode of The Woj Pod, Adrian Wojnarowski said that the Lakers didn’t want his injury to come out, and that there is a belief that “people within Ball’s orbit” spoke to the media about it.
Woj didn’t outright confirm it, but as with anything else, he wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t believe it was true. While Ball’s camp didn’t fake his injury, like some have been led to believe, they still played up an injury that isn’t expected to keep him out of training camp since they didn’t want him included in a potential package for Kawhi Leonard.
Like anything else LaVar has done, this is a stupid move on the surface but a brilliant one from a marketing perspective. He has surely seen the sway LeBron James has when it comes to front office decisions — he famously sealed Andrew Wiggins’ fate when he returned to Cleveland, and he was at the center of last season’s trade deadline whirlwind that sent Isaiah Thomas and others packing. Like any proud father, he didn’t want his son to be robbed of the chance to play with James, which is why he did what he did.
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But while it’s still early days, the Lakers’ offseason hasn’t gone according to plan. Not only did Paul George stay in Oklahoma City after hundreds of thousands spent in tampering fines, but Leonard is now more open to getting traded to the Los Angeles Clippers instead.
After James left Cleveland to play with more “cerebral players” in L.A., it looks like he might spend his first season playing with Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee and Rajon Rondo. Both Rondo and Ball fit into that cerebral mold, but they’re not going to push the Lakers over the top. James might find himself having to carry a weak supporting cast again, this time in the loaded Western Conference.