In what many employees at Staples Center view as the "LaVar Ball rule," this season the Los Angeles Lakers are enforcing "an existing policy" that no longer allows members of the media to congregate in a section of the arena among family and associates of players after games.
Family, friends and agents wait for players in the seats behind the basket closest to the visiting team's locker room at the conclusion of games. Interviews conducted in that designated area and near the tunnel leading to the arena corridors are now forbidden.
LaVar Ball, the father of Lakers rookie point guard Lonzo Ball, is also not permitted to do interviews on the court, something he did on opening night after the LA Clippers defeated the Lakers 108-92. The league's rule is that an individual must be credentialed in order to enter onto the court. LaVar Ball hasn't done an on-court interview since.
A handful of rival front-office executives deem this matter as a necessary reinforcement to prevent LaVar Ball from having a routine postgame platform in which he's occasionally critical of the team.
Last week, apparently unrelated to LaVar Ball, the Lakers implemented a new protocol barring media personnel, with the exception of those doing TV live shots, from sitting in the courtside seats on the Lakers' end of the court while players are getting pregame work in.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...forcing-called-lavar-ball-rule-staples-center
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