INSCMagazine: Get Social!

Number two pick in the NBA Draft, new face of the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s good to be a big baller, most notably Big Baller Brand.

From being center stage in Brooklyn at NBA Draft night to appearing on ‘WWE Raw’, the brainchild of LaVar Ball, the outspoken and brash father of Lakers star Lonzo, Big Baller Brand is beginning to walk on its own legs and take off.

From their controversially overpriced $495 ZO2 “Shotime” purple and gold Laker-themed sneakers to their extravagant claims of not being a “big baller” if you don’t buy their products, like it or not, one can begrudgingly tip their proverbial BBB hat to the marketing genius that is LaVar.

Think about this, for months on end, LaVar was shamelessly and unapologetically proclaimed that Lonzo was better than two-time NBA champion and NBA MVP in Steph Curry, that he himself would have been better than Michael Jordan, that his son would be drafted by the Lakers and that he was the best player in the entire draft.

As a fellow parent, I can get behind LaVar in being a proud parent, but sadly, this only puts more pressure on a barely 19-year-old kid, playing in his hometown for a storied—and perhaps the THE glamour sports franchise—in the Los Angeles Lakers.

When you have a five-time NBA champion in Magic Johnson basically proclaims that your jersey will one day hang from the Staples Center rafters amongst hoops gods such as himself, Kareem, Jerry West, then that is an indication that he himself has drank the BBB Kool-Aid in buying into the brand.

Since BBB is based in Los Angeles with Lonzo playing for the Lakers, and LaVar likely to be court side for every game at Staples, BBB will get all sorts of free advertising when cameras cut to him cheering a game-winning shot or a questionable and controversial call.

God bless head coach Luke Walton for having to become a proverbial usher in what will be the Ball & Bailey circus.

In addition to seeing Lonzo light it up on the court and Lavar generating buzz off of it in being featured/written and talked about on media outlets such as TMZ, WWE, Bleacher Report, Yahoo and ESPN non-stop, 24-7, consider that his middle child, LiAngelo will follow in his brother’s uber-high priced sneakers over at Westwood, with the youngest—and perhaps most talented in LaMelo is dropping dimes out at suburban Chino Hills.

Appearances in magazines, a possible reality TV series in the works and two more sons ready to make their bones in the family business, you’re either a big baller, or you ain’t. BBB isn’t just about sneakers, its about living a lifestyle without rules, consequences with no apologies.

Brand exposure and marketing 101. Genius.

Thanks to today’s image-driven social media society, where individuals want to emulate what those they see in sports are doing, BBB has managed to successfully manipulate the subliminal and impulsive need to buy their stuff and incest in their “big baller” lifestyle of being loud, brash and unapologetic.

Love them, hate them, BBB doesn’t care what you think, but deep down inside, they know that you want to be JUST like them.

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