Lonzo Ball’s second season with the Los Angeles Lakers was a rough one. Though he seemed to be showing improvements on the court, it was ended abruptly due to a severely sprained ankle, marking the second straight season he failed to finish. His off-court issues may be even worse.
Ball’s longtime business manager and family friend, Alan Foster, is currently being investigated by the FBI.
Ball is currently suing Foster after $1.5 million of his money came up missing and the Big Baller Brand could fold because of these issues.
Foster has been a longtime close friend of Ball’s father and an advisor to him for years. In fact, according to Tania Ganguli and Richard Winton of Los Angeles Times, Foster encouraged Ball to only work out for the Lakers ahead of the 2017 NBA Draft:
Foster also encouraged Lonzo to refuse to workout for any team other than the Lakers, according a person familiar with their communications.
From the beginning, all of those around Lonzo were pushing him to the Lakers. LaVar publicly said that Lonzo would only play for the Lakers ahead of the draft and if this information is true, Foster wanted the same. With the plans of launching Big Baller Brand, Lonzo winding up on the most popular franchise in the NBA would get more eyes on him and the company, so it makes sense why Foster would want that.
Overall, it is a sad story for Ball who also parted ways with his agent before ultimately signing with CAA. The good news is that he is taking control of his career, hinting towards signing with Nike, which could help to solve the ankle issues he’s been dealing with since entering the league.
The 21-year-old has plenty of talent and showed signs of putting it together before injuries killed his season. With a full offseason to improve and his off-court drama soon to be behind him, everything on-court could finally come together for him.
