Lonzo Ball is back after missing 2.5 seasons with a series of career-threatening knee injuries. Now the Bulls guard is talking about his return, and wondering if his dad’s shoe brand led to his issues.
A huge feature on Ball was published over on ESPN, and is absolutely worth reading about how Lonzo managed to make his NBA return with the Bulls after everything seemed so bleak, but what leaped off the page was his description of the “Big Baller Brand” shoe designed by his father LaVar Ball, and how that could have impacted his injuries in the NBA.
The first version of the shoe Ball tried to wear during the 2017 Summer League were such absolute garbage that his manager needed to go to a local Foot Locker and buy shoes off the shelf each day, rather than wearing the BBBs.
“They were like kickball shoes,” Ball said. He wore them just twice that summer. He and his manager, Darren Moore, went out to Foot Locker stores in Las Vegas to buy a different pair of high-end shoes for each game. Ball played one game each in the Air Jordan XXXI, Nike Kobe A.D., Adidas Harden LS and Under Armour Curry 4 en route to winning summer league MVP.
While Lonzo was focused on getting ready for his NBA debut, his father’s primary goal was building the brand — and reached an agreement with Sketchers to produce the first run of the $450 BBB shoes. Lonzo suffered his first knee injury in January of 2018, just a few short months into his NBA career with the Lakers. Now he thinks there’s a possibility the shoes had something to do with it.
“I think it’s a possibility for sure, to be honest with you,” Ball said. “I wasn’t really getting hurt like that until I started wearing them.”
This is notable because his younger brother LaMelo (who has had his own share of injury issues), chose not to wear the BBBs at all when he entered the NBA, instead signing a deal with Puma.
With the litany of injuries Lonzo sustained during his early career there’s a very real chance the shoes did cause the issue, though we’ll never know for sure. What we do know is that thankfully he’s back and playing phenomenally well in limited time. Lonzo will never be a prolific scorer like his brother, but he’s a solid defender and is averaging a stunning 9.9 assists-per-game despite being limited to less than 20 minutes per game.
This story has a happy ending, but we’ll always wonder what could have been had Lonzo never been injured.
