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Mike Bryant, father of NL MVP Kris Bryant, recently chimed in on the media whore that is also known as LaVar Ball. In case you’ve been under a rock the past few weeks, Ball is the father of UCLA basketball standout Lonzo Ball and has created a media frenzy surrounding his family by making some of the following claims:
- On November 25, he guaranteed that UCLA (Lonzo’s team) would win the National Championship. As we all know, Kentucky took care of that promise.
- Lonzo is a projected top 3 pick in the upcoming NBA draft and in February, LaVar said his son would only play for the Los Angeles Lakers. LaVar later retracted that statement and said he was only speaking Lonzo playing for the Lakers “into existence.”
- He is reportedly seeking a $1 billion dollar packaged shoe deal for his three sons.
- About two weeks ago, he said that he would “kill” Michael Jordan in a game of 1-on-1.
- Most recently, he claimed his son is better than reigning NBA MVP Steph Curry.
Mike Bryant knows a few things about reigning MVPs because his son, Kris, will be the reigning MVP going into the 2017 MLB season. The difference between Mike and LaVar however, is the fact that Mike’s son has already “made it” as a big-time professional athlete while Lavar’s son is still on his way.
One would think that LaVar would be open to listening to advice from a guy who’s been there and done that as it relates to raising a superstar athlete but we’re yet to see if LaVar will take to the advice that Mike gave him when he went on ESPN 1000 yesterday.
“The guy is going to ruin it for his kids…If I had five minutes with him and I could get him to listen for two of them I think I could get him to think a little bit.”
From everything I’ve heard and read about Mike Bryant, he was no slouch as a dad. He had Kris hitting in the batting cages from an early age, worked tirelessly trying to create a perfect swing, and kept on his son in the classroom as well.
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So the guy’s advice has some credibility behind it. He’s walked the walk AND talked the talk.
LaVar, to this point, has just talked.
If history holds true, I’m sure Ball will call up Bryant and the conversation would go something like this:
LaVar: Hey Mike, I heard you on the radio yesterday telling me I’m ruining sports for my kids.
Mike: It was said with good intent Lavar, I didn’t mean for you to take it negatively.
LaVar: Well I took it that way Mike. Matter of fact while I’m thinking about it, your son’s swing is completely off. His back elbow is up too high and I don’t like the way he follows through either. Actually, while I have you on the line, I used to play a little baseball in high school myself.
Mike: LaVar…..
LaVar: I’d bet you I could hit a ball farther than Kris right now. I hit something like 87 home runs my senior year.
Mike: (hangs up phone)
Look, I understand what LaVar Ball is doing with his whole “shock value” shtick. I’d bet you that when he’s not in front of a camera he’s probably a pretty regular guy but he has to throw on this outlandish, crazy father persona to feed into the media hype (and more importantly, keep the media focused on his sons).
It’s actually pretty smart to be honest.
However, when you are probably more famous then your division one athlete son, that’s kind of a problem. I think it’d be safe to say that if you polled 100 people, all 100 of them would know who Kris Bryant was while most of them would have no idea who his father was — which is the way it’s supposed to be.
