Mavericks' coach Rick Carlisle tears into ESPN for publishing LaVar Ball's comments on Luke Walton
What's the story?
Before Sunday's game against the New York Knicks, the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, Rick Carlisle, made some rather interesting comments towards ESPN regarding the ongoing saga between LaVar Ball and Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton.
In case you didn't know...
LaVar Ball is the outspoken father of current NBA rookie Lonzo Ball. The Lakers selected Lonzo second overall in the 2017 NBA Draft.
LaVar started his outlandish behavior in the months leading up to the draft starting with proclaiming his son is much better than Golden State Warriors' guard Stephen Curry.
The heart of the matter...
Carlisle stated that it was a "disgrace" that ESPN would publish remarks made by LaVar criticizing coach Walton. He would add on to that remark with the quote below from ESPN:
"As president of the coaches association, I view the recent ESPN article as a disgrace, quite honestly," Carlisle said before Sunday's game against the New York Knicks. "Luke Walton is a terrific, young coach who is bringing along a young team, and it's a difficult task. If you don't believe it, just ask me. We're going through that now and went through that last year."
Earlier this week LaVar stated that Walton has lost control of his team and players don't want to play for him. Carlisle believes that ESPN publishing these remarks erodes trust between ESPN and the coaches of the league. He even went as far as saying the coaches are upset with ESPN publishing those remarks.
Carlisle would sum everything up in one simple statement, "To have to deal with these kinds of ignorant distractions is deplorable."
What's next?
The Dallas Mavericks (13-28) will host the Orlando Magic (12-28) on Tuesday evening; while the Los Angeles Lakers (12-27) will host the Sacramento Kings (13-25) also on Tuesday. The latter game will air live on NBATV.
Author's take...
I completely agree with Carlisle here. Giving LaVar this much attention is not good for the team or Lonzo at all.
Now there are other coaches in the league getting upset for ESPN publishing LaVar's remarks. The best thing for all parties involved is to ignore LaVar into obscurity.