Ball family patriarch LaVar Ball has pretty much always been an open book about what he thinks and what's going on in his life. But that didn't make his most recent announcement any less surprising.
In a recent YouTube video with N3ON, Ball revealed that he and his wife Tina have decided to separate after 30 years of marriage. He didn't say what exactly led to their separation but did reveal that he is currently seeing someone else.
“You know with my wife, Tina decided to go her own way that’s why you don’t see her right here,” Ball said. “But she want to go do something else, that’s fine with me. We had our run. So even though she had the stroke, and getting older, she would never be like, ‘Oh man, she was always beautiful in my eyes.’ Until you say, ‘I want to go do something else.’ Now you’re not as beautiful to me again.
“The fact that if you decide to go this way, I’m going to go that way, that’s fine. That’s deep. It is what it is, man. And like I said, anytime you can find somebody you can stay in love with for a long time or for one day or whatever, if you can witness that love, that’s good. I had that with her. And I found somebody else, but it is what it is.”
Ball in the Family
LaVar Ball and the Ball family have had a significant impact on basketball culture and the NBA, both on and off the court. Beginning in the mid-2010s, LaVar became a national media figure through his outspoken promotion of his sons - Lonzo Ball, LiAngelo Ball, and LaMelo Ball. His bold claims that Lonzo would become an NBA superstar and that he himself could have competed with legends such as Michael Jordan generated enormous media attention.
The family's reality show, youth basketball success, and the launch of the independent Big Baller Brand helped make the Balls one of the most recognizable families in sports before any of the brothers had established NBA careers.
On the basketball side, the family's influence has been substantial. Lonzo became the second overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft and developed into one of the league's better playmaking guards before injuries derailed his career.
LaMelo emerged as the family's biggest NBA success story, winning the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 2021 and becoming an All-Star with the Charlotte Hornets.
Earlier today, LaMelo was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a blockbuster trade.
