Serge Ibaka and James Johnson were both ejected in the third quarter of the Heat vs. Raptors game on Tuesday night for throwing punches at each other
Serge Ibaka is no stranger to getting caught up in on-court fights, including this terrible one with Robin Lopez last year. But there doesn’t appear to be any previous beef between him and Johnson. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was asked about the LaVar Ball story ESPN published on Sunday morning, in which Lonzo’s father called out Lakers head coach Luke Walton. The story sent the media into a spiral as both Walton and Lonzo downplayed the incident, while Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle called out both ESPN and LaVar.
A day later, Kerr saw all sides of the scene, sympathizing with the media while comparing LaVar to a Kardashian.
“I’ve talked to people in the media and said ‘Why do you guys have to cover that guy,’” said Kerr. “They say ‘We don’t want to. Nobody wants to. But our bosses tell us we have to because of the ratings and the readership.’”
He went on to talk about the ESPN story itself, which he thought was a non-story.
“There’s nothing interesting about that story,” Kerr continued. “You know how many parents of my players have probably been at home thinking, ‘Why isn’t he playing my kid?’ Yet we’re sticking a microphone in front of his face because apparently it gets ratings.”
This is the world we live in. I was thinking about ESPN and they laid off, I don’t know 100 people? ... How many people did they lay off over the last year? More?!
Many of which were talented journalists covering the NBA. So this is not an ESPN judgement, it’s a societal thing more than anything. But where we’re going is away from covering the game and we’re getting closer to just sensationalized news, and it’s not even news, it’s just complete nonsense. But if you package that irrational nonsense with some glitter and ribbon, people are gonna watch.
I’ve talked to people in the media and said ‘Why do you guys have to cover that guy.’ They say ‘We don’t want to. Nobody wants to. But our bosses tell us
we have to because of the ratings and the readership.’
So somewhere, I guess in Lithuania, LaVar Ball is laughing. People are eating out his hands for no apparent reason. Other than he’s become like the Kardashian of the NBA or something and that sells. That’s true in politics and entertainment and now sports. It doesn’t matter if there’s any substance involved with an issue. It’s just ‘Can we make it really interesting.’ For no apparent reason. There’s nothing interesting about that story. You know how many parents of my players have probably been at home thinking ‘Why isn’t he playing my kid.’ Yet we’re sticking a microphone in front of his face because apparently it gets ratings. I don’t know who cares, but people must care or ESPN wouldn’t be spending whatever they’re spending.
LaVar Ball’s words are still dominating the news cycle all the way from Lithuania.n.