Who really knows what are the true reasons behind Lonzo Ball’s career-threatening injuries? At this point, all we can really do is speculate. However, we can’t help but wonder if his father’s shoe brands had anything to do with it, especially after a recent interview with the Bulls player just resurfaced on social media.
For the past three years, the 27-year-old pretty much missed out on NBA action due to three knee injuries, missing out on two complete seasons. Many would think that this would be the end of his promising career, but the point guard somehow managed to remain focused and came back this 2024-25 campaign.
As his own doctor described it, his last surgery was a Hail Mary to save his career as an athlete, as it even included a rare-cartilage transplant from a cadaver. Even though he’s only played in six games so far this season, it is much more than we ever thought would happen after his long and frustrating recovery.
“They were like kickball shoes. I wasn’t really getting hurt like that until I started wearing them.”
– Lonzo Ball, on his Big Baller Brand basketball shoes
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— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) December 5, 2024
Now that this is in the past and Lonzo is healthy and back on court, we wonder if his case if purely based on bad luck or maybe his injuries had something to do with his training or equipment.
Not too long ago, Ball shared his thoughts during an interview and mentioned that fact that he was wearing his father LaVar’s Big Baller Brand shoes during the time he suffered his first injury. His eldest son even described the initial version of these sneakers as “like kickball shoes.”
The Chicago star recently gave us a bit of context on the matter. “I was an Adidas kid since high school, so I was thinking that was going to be the route,” Ball shared. “But what was told to me, I guess, wasn’t what really happened. I was told that nobody wanted to partner with me, so my dad was like, ‘Just rock the brand.’ And I was like, ‘All right.’”
According to Lonzo, the shoes that his father made for him to wear at the NBA Summer League almost eight years ago were pretty much unwearable. I guess it was a difficult decision to reject your dad’s business endeavour, especially considering he was a professional baller as well.
According to the Bulls guard’s account, he considered the first version of his father’s shoes to be difficult to wear, and even worse to play with
“They were like kickball shoes,” Ball said about the shoes he wore twice during the 2017 NBA Summer League. A young Lonzo had to choice but to tell his manager Darren Moore, and decided to head out to a Foot Locker store in Las Vegas to buy a different pair of high-end shoes for the rest of the competition.
Lonzo then opted to try different sneakers during the rest of the tournament, the same one he won the Summer League MVP award. The young guard used Air Jordan XXXI, Nike Kobe A.D., Adidas Harden LS and Under Armour Curry 4 during the rest of the matches.
Big Baller Brand then made the smart decision to join with Skechers so that the expert company could manufacture their sneakers, which were the same ones that Lonzo used during his entire rookie campaign in Los Angeles.
Nevertheless, the player wasn’t happy at all, as he believes that they could have contributed to his first injuries that started back on January 2018. “I think it’s a possibility for sure, to be honest with you,” Ball opened up. “I wasn’t really getting hurt like that until I started wearing them.”
