LaVar Ball has never been shy about boasting about his accomplishments. (Complex)
LaVar Ball isn’t short on confidence and that’s more than apparent in a recent sit down with Complex magazine.
The head of the family’s Big Baller Brand, which debuted a line of shoes inspired by each of his three sons last year, sat down with Complex Networks CEO Rich Antoniello for a discussion on how his family is redefining success. One of those ways focuses on his shoe line with current Los Angeles Laker Lonzo, LiAngelo, a hopeful Laker and LaMelo, who plays overseas in a Lithuanian club.
“Everybody looks up to Michael Jordan but if Michael Jordan were like me, he’d really be rich,” Ball says during a one-on-one panel for ComplexCon(versations). “He been working for a long time for Nike. And like I tell ’em, this what I tell guys Michael Jordan ain’t like me, ’cause he’s co-branding with Nike. So in other words, when he put his shoe out, if Nike say, ‘You know what, have that Jumpman here but put my Nike sign, — matter fact put your Jumpman behind and put my Nike in front.’ You know what he gotta do? ‘OK.’
“These triple Bs? These triple Bs, I put ’em out, you ain’t gonna see nobody else’s sign on there,” he adds of his independently owned brand compared to MJ’s Air Jordan line born out of the retired baller’s 1984 deal with Nike. “You wanna co-brand or get an endorsement deal, that’s low. When you own your own stuff, they ask me how many shoes I gotta make. I ain’t gotta make none. Those I’m making for my boys I’m good. They got they own shoe. Holla at cha boy.”
