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Over the past year, LaVar Ball has drawn both the ire and (to a lesser extent) the admiration of basketball fans thanks to his dedication to saying literally anything he can to stir up controversy in order to stay in the spotlight and further his personal brand. It’s easy to draw parallels between Ball and the man who demanded a thank you from LiAngelo when he returned from China after being arrested for shoplifting, but that’s far from the only person you can compare him to.
Mark Cuban spoke to The Dallas Morning News following yet another week where Ball pissed off seemingly everyone in the NBA and managed to get himself into some hot water thanks to his helicopter parenting. Unlike many people, Cuban seems to think Ball is actually good for the league, and compared him to one of the greatest attention seekers of all time: Dennis Rodman.
The Dallas Mavericks owner praised Ball for his ability to exploit the public’s constant thirst for drama, saying:
“There’s an old saying in the stock game that you go loud and go long. LaVar Ball has to keep saying crazy stuff to stay relevant. He’s actually good for the NBA in a perverse way because he gets casual fans’ attention.
It’s Dennis Rodman all over again. The only thing left for LaVar Ball to do is put on a dress.”
The bald-headed Ball might never be able to replicate Rodman’s signature hairdos, but he has already followed in the footsteps of the former Chicago Bull by befriending a leader in a foreign country— only in his case, it’s the head coach of a Lithuanian basketball team instead of the ruthless leader of an authoritarian regime.
With that said, based on Lithuania’s proximity to Russia, it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if we see Ball palling around with Vladimir Putin at some point in the immediate future.