LiAngelo Ball Has Signed A $13M Deal With Def Jam & Universal Music Group, LaVar Ball Cements Himself On Mount Rushmore Of Sports Dads
He's officially done it. The world said he was crazy. They called him all the terrible names in the book. They said he was a bad parent who was only harming his kids futures. But LaVar Ball has officially completed the son raising hat trick. Now that his middle son LiAngelo "Gelo" Ball has signed a $13M record deal with Def Jam & Universal Music Group, LaVar Ball has cemented himself on the Mount Rushmore of sports fathers.
Earl Woods, Richard Williams, LaVar Ball, _. I'm not actually sure who the 4th would be. Maybe a football guy. Archie Manning, Howie Long, Buddy Ryan all raised some damn good sons. But they kinda fall into a different category for me, considering they were at the top of their profession themselves. It's a little different when it's a dad who seemingly comes out of nowhere. And there's nobody who did it the way Lavar Ball did.
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LiAngelo Ball has to be LaVar's crowning achievement. There's a good chance that without LaVar, Lonzo and LaMelo would still be where they're at today. I think what LaVar did probably helped. He gave them more of a spotlight, which I'm sure resulted in some extra ad deals, and overall more money in their pockets. But they're talented enough on their own to be in the NBA. But could LiAngelo Ball have released a viral rap song that took over the NBA, and parlayed that into a major record deal with a reputable music label? I'm not sure.
Not to belittle Gelo's rapping prowess. He made a great song. But to breakthrough in the music industry is damn near impossible. There are so many great songs out there, and so many insanely talented artists that the world will never hear because they never had the resources, or just weren't in the right place at the right time for their career to really take off. But if your dad thrusts your family into the spotlight by completely taking over sports media for a stretch of time in 2017, that gives you a platform. So when you do make a song that's worth a damn, people are actually going to hear it.
LiAngelo was always going to be LaVar's biggest challenge. He got off to a rocky start at UCLA, where he's primarily remembered for the alleged shoplifting spree he went on while UCLA was playing in China. And trying to get into the rap game is big risk. It's inherently an embarrassing thing to do. It's really putting yourself out there. If you fail at rap, you end up looking like such a loser. But for a select few people, rapping goes from highly embarrassing to the coolest thing in the world seemingly overnight. That's what happened to Gelo.
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Congratulations LaVar. Congratulations Gelo. NBA players always want to be rappers. Who would have guessed that in the end, LiAngelo Ball be the Ball brother the rest of the NBA wants to be. Maybe. I guess they're probably happy with there multiple hundreds more millions of dollars. But having a hit rap song that's played in locker room across the country and signing with Def Jam records is pretty fucking cool.