At some point you duns are goin’ to start listenin’ to me bruh! I wrote the Hot Joint entitled “Horses” on this past Friday and then turned around on “The Saturday Mornin’ Drive Podcast” and told you boyz that at some point LaVar Ball’s gotta admit that the Big Baller Brand ZO2 isn’t functional enough to be worn by an NBA player. If the cat that the shoe is named after isn’t willin’ to wear it then who else will? I explained to cats that LaVar and Co. don’t have the technology that the major show apparel companies have to compete at the same level of comfort that the players need to be able to play in them. In five games in Summer League play Lonzo Ball has worn the ZO2’s twice, then he put on the Kobe’s (Nike), then the James Harden joints (Adidas) and on Saturday night he showed up in the Steph Curry’s (Under Armour).
So now all of a sudden instead of LaVar sayin’ that his shoe doesn’t have the technology to compete with the big apparel companies he’s talkin’ out of the side of his neck tryin’ to spin this foolishness. Ole boy said in a text message, “It’s making a statement to the brands of what they could have had with an open mind. The players are the brand ambassadors. The brand is nothing without the players.” Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! LaVar can run that game on these suburban-type cats all day long playa. But every hood dwella or every former hood dwella in America can see right through that foolishness. Like I said in the Hot Joint on Friday, you’re not sellin’ your product as long as you’re wearin’ someone else’s product. That’s sales 101!!
The fact that you’re not wearin’ your product means that it doesn’t work as well as the others. Which anybody with half of a brain already knows. You can’t just come off of the street and create a product that will be as comfortable for the professional athlete as Nike, Adidas, Reebok or Under Armour. Why? Because they’ve got the bread to do the research and technology that some small change cat can’t do. It takes MILLIONS of dollars to create a shoe that a pro-athlete will wear at this point. Their money is made with the shoe that they are able to wear bruh! This isn’t Pookie, Ray-Ray and Man-Man nem goin’ to Footlocker buyin’ some gear for school bruh. These cats are lookin’ for a tool to help them make a livin’. Do you think that Ed the Plumber is goin’ to buy a wrench off of Lil’ Johnny Do-wop from around the way on his way to a $10 million deal to fix the toilets at the J.W. Marriott? Okay then!
Why would you think Lonzo Ball is goin’ to keep wearin’ a shoe that doesn’t have the same technology that the others have just to make his old man happy? He became a fully GROWN man when he signed with the Lakers playa. It would be different if the other companies and Big Baller Brand were all startin’ out at the same time. But they aren’t bruh! Duns like Nike and Adidas have a 40 plus year head start on this cat!!! Reebok isn’t too far behind and Under Armour had to pay their dues by sellin’ T-shirts and gear first. Why would the Big Baller Brand be any different.
And please don’t tell me how much of a genius LaVar is by havin’ Lonzo wear everybody else’s shoes. Ole boy was wearin’ the other shoes because his joints didn’t work. LaVar has been excellent in brandin’ his son and creatin’ hype. That’s why the duns like Nike and Adidas will offer him a huge deal at this point. The Big Baller Brand, in terms of shoes, is at this point nonexistent.
Let me tell you what an O.G. told me years ago. “You can’t bypass the natural order of doin’ things young blood.” Now that I’m an O.G. I’m tellin’ LaVar the same thing and he should already know that because he’s as old as I am. So LaVar, don’t try to run game now that you’ve figured out that you’re in over your head because Lonzo isn’t about to bet on tearin’ his freakin’ feet up with a shoe that doesn’t work. Take the deal from one of these shoe companies and keep it movin’.
Take that bread and invest some of it into the Big Baller Brand. Why? Because “You can’t bypass the natural order of doin’ things young blood.” Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus: 1) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.
The G is excluded from the endings of all words because the G is near and dear to my heart because I’m from “The G” which is Gary, Indiana. So I only use the G when I’m talkin’ about “The G!”
The caption under the photo isn’t real but its real talk!