Over the past year there has been one name that has dominated the headlines of the basketball world. He has an extremely bold personality and his sons' play back up his mouth, this man's name is Lavar Ball. Lavar Ball jumped on the scene last year while his oldest son Lonzo was a talented freshmen at UCLA. Lavar made a name for himself during an in-game interview when he said that his son was better than reigning NBA MVP, Stephen Curry. From there the Ball family took off and was all over the news, every sports television show wanted Lavar to come on because of the ridiculous statements he would make in front of the camera. While all of this was going on Lavar became a marketing genius and used this new platform to promote his start up company the Big Baller Brand, or BBB for short. The idea for the company was to market the three Ball brothers, Lonzo, Liangelo, and Lamelo. All over the country you began to see Lavar and the boys wearing BBB clothing and merchandise and they were beginning to shake up the basketball world. June of last year was when the company really took a big step, instead of signing a shoe deal with one of the main basketball brands like other rookies, Lonzo Ball decided to stick with the Big Baller Brand and create his own personal shoe before starting his rookie season. This was something that had never been done before and it shocked the entire basketball world, the Big Baller Brands reasoning was that why should other companies benefit off of Lonzo's success when the family can keep it within the name and brand themselves. This past winter the BBB decided to focus on the global scale and headed over to china for a press tour where they would set up pop up shops to sell and promote the brand. The response they received was overwhelming, the family and more specifically Lavar became stars. After seeing the success they had in china, Big Baller Brand made the ultimate jump this December. Lavar decided to pull second eldest, Liangelo from UCLA, and youngest Lamelo from Chino Hills high school and decided to head over seas! The two sons were signed by Vytautas Prieenai, a team in Lithuania who was apart of the Baltic League. But BBB did not stop there, the new team decided to pull away from the Baltic League and join the Big Baller Brand Challenge Games, a tournament sponsored by BBB that is currently being played before the Lithuanian league starts. Since the BBB has arrived the league and team have been getting a great deal of publicity and there is a lot of excitement around the two young players. In one year, Lavar Ball and the BBB have gone from doing crazy in-game interviews to having its own preseason tournament in Lithuania. It will be interesting to see where the company goes from here, but with Lavar Ball in charge I wouldn't put any thing past the company as they have proved that they are capable of anything.
Photo:Mindaugas Kulbis/AP
Photo:Mindaugas Kulbis/AP
Wow this was very interesting to read and am glad I did. This is all fresh news to me, but I think it is pretty clever that Lavar Ball used a diss towards Stephen Curry to receive fame which then lead him to open up a gate to his new business. Even though they all fleed over seas, I wonder if that statement he made would have become true. I wonder if his son would actually be better than Stephen Curry but since they fleed and are managing their business, they will never know unless they go back. I am not shocked that they went to China first to get their business going because it is known for others to do the same.
ReplyDeleteFun fact: I was born in Chino Hills and would have gone to that high school
I agree that it was a very smart move on Lavar Ball's part to make such an outrageous comment that got so much media attention. Even if it wasn't on purpose at first, by keeping up the image and getting media attention for his whole family, he started making a name all of them. In todays world its very hard to get media attention with all the competing social media platforms and so on. But because of the brothers popularity, they now have a lot more of a chance to be successful in selling their own products.
ReplyDeleteEven though they are moving to Lithuania I think it's important they keep up their popularity in the United States since the U.S. has much more market potential then Lithuania. If they are able to do so, I see their company as having the potential to really take off!
- Siobhan O'Loughlin
Lavar Ball is either a genius or the dumbest basketball parent in the world. Putting his son out as “better than Steph Curry” automatically puts the viewer’s expectations of his game to a maximum. The publicity that the Balls maintain is outrageous and watching them on ESPN seems more like a reality show, which they actually already have. I would be nervous to be a Ball son because no matter how hard they play their father will talk up their game even more. This marketing tactic is great for Big Baller Brand, but im not so sure how good it is for the Ball son’s careers. I for one will be watching the Ball family’s every move.
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