Is Lavar Ball an annoying sports parent or a marketing genius?

We’ve all witnessed one or two in our time in junior sport: the dad who won’t stop yelling criticism from the sideline, who seems to forget he’s watching 13D cricket.

He can never quite understand why the coach has made a certain decision, and don’t dare suggest that the referee or umpire made a correct call.

His son is the best and if he doesn’t make the best team he makes a point of letting the other parents know the coach has something against his boy. After all, that’s the only possible explanation.

If you follow any major sports media page on social media than by now you’ve no doubt heard of LaVar Ball, who is basketball’s 13D annoying dad for 2017.

Ball has been making international headlines recently with all sorts of dubious claims.

From saying his son Lonzo, a talented freshman basketballer at UCLA, is better than two-time NBA MVP Steph Curry, to challenging NCAA amateurism laws by creating a company, Big Baller Brand, for all three of his sons, LaVar knows how to keep the spotlight on the Ball family.

Up until now, it just seemed that Ball Sr was overly proud of his obviously very talented sons. With Lonzo set to be a top draft pick and LaMelo and LiAngelo making a name for themselves without their father’s help in high school basketball, you couldn’t blame LaVar for believing in his children.

However, things took a turn for the ridiculous when LaVar started making claims that Michael Jordan (yes, you read that right) was “too slow” to guard him and challenging NBA great Charles Barkley to a game of one-on-one. Ball, who averaged 2.2 points and 2.3 rebounds for Washington State in the old Pac-10, wouldn’t exactly scare arguably the greatest basketball player of all time.

But, no matter how LaVar carries himself as a sports parent, one thing remains: people are talking about the Ball family.

LaVar is getting air time and every appearance he makes on talk shows or courtside at his sons’ games, the three Bs of the Big Baller Brand are on show.

Ball is certainly not the first American personality to go big on self-promotion. The late Muhammad Ali consistently let people know he was one of the best of all time. Ali backed himself, and rightly so. But is LaVar’s hype of his newly created brand and his sons warranted?

LaVar and Lonzo Ball are easy names to remember and come NBA draft time, hopefully, the talk remains on Lonzo’s playing ability and not his over-exuberant dad.

So, is LaVar an annoying parent, or a marketing genius? Probably both.