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There aren’t many signs that you’ve “made it” as a basketball player like getting your own shoe (and the multi-million dollar contract that usually comes with it) and you normally have to be a pretty big name in order to put your name on some footwear.
However, there are certain exceptions to that rule, including Lonzo Ball, who—or more accurately, whose dad—made waves after turning down a reported $10 million offer and opting instead to release a $495 sneaker under the Big Baller Brand label, which was—according to the never hyperbolic LaVar—the athletic company of the future.
I don’t think anyone really expected BBB to be the next big thing but I also don’t think anyone predicted it would implode in the particularly spectacular fashion that it did after co-founder Alan Foster got fired when $1.5 million of the company’s money went missing.
The fallout was almost immediate as Lonzo’s manager posted a video of himself throwing a pair of BBB shoes in the trash as Lonzo deleted any evidence of the company on social media from existence and covered up the tattoo that it had inspired.
Lonzo Ball’s manager @dmoore_1 just posted this. 👀 #dumpurmerch pic.twitter.com/VLjkrxSn3u
— B/R Kicks (@brkicks) March 25, 2019
Following the blowup, LaVar swore the company was merely experiencing some growing pains and said he agreed with Lonzo’s decision to obscure the ink.
As things currently stand, Foster is being investigated by the FBI for fraud and LaVar is still charging absurd amounts of money for all things Big Baller and it doesn’t look like he’s planning on stopping any time soon.
According to TMZ, LaVar is currently making moves to get BBB back into the shoe game and beyond and has started to hire people who hopefully won’t screw him out of exorbitant amounts of money. There’s no timeline for the reboot, but if it means we get more vintage LaVar back in our lives, it can’t come soon enough.