The parenting techniques of LaVar Ball are providing hot takes all over the place; both praising, but mostly condemning him for removing his two youngest sons, LaMelo & LiAngelo from school & shipping them a world away to Lithuania for pro careers.
Charles Barkley recently ripped into LaVar, going as far as to call him a “bad father” & accused him of exploiting his kids for his own personal gain:
“Everybody talking about how he might be a good father, this and that. No he’s not. He’s just exploiting his kids. … He’s all about Big Baller Brand. He has no foreseeable talent. He’s trying to make money on his kids, and I just feel sadness for those kids because they’re going to do whatever he tells them to do. I just don’t like the guy at all, plain and simple. And don’t tell me he’s a good father. Just because you exploit your kids, trying to make money because you have no talent, that does not make you a good father. That makes you exploiting your kids. And I don’t like the guy at all. And I wish they would quit putting him on television, because he has no talent whatsoever.”
That’s a pretty strong & frankly dangerous assertion to make. While we can never really know 100% the true motivations of another human being, to say he’s a “bad father” when his three boys are in primed position to be paid to do what they love to do is definitely a bit pre-mature.
Are there other ways to go about it? Of course there are. But if LaVar Ball was a white CEO who was taking his sons out of public school to send them abroad & teach them the international business world, MANY less people would bat an eye.
Kenny Smith, Barkley’s “NBA on TNT” co-host was stopped by photogs & asked his opinion on LaVar Ball & Charles Barkley’s comments.
He’s spot on with his answers.
Flip the page to see the brief interview, via TMZ:
