LaVar, LaMelo, and LiAngelo Ball—three perennial all-stars of Facebook Watch’s Ball In the Family—officially arrived in Lithuania yesterday ahead of their Prienu Vytautas debut next week. If the airport welcoming party is any indicator, both the Lithuanian franchise and traditional folk music scene are juiced for the family’s next chapter:
Intrigued #Lithuania welcomes Ball brothers to local #basketball club pic.twitter.com/G0dHz1zfjH
— Vaidotas Beniušis (@BeniusisV) January 3, 2018
Welcome to Lithuania, indeed.
The song is informative enough, boasting a hook not too different from what Rick Pitino might have performed for a group of arriving Louisville freshmen. In a vacuum, it’s good fun. But look to the bigger picture, and you might just witness the makings of something a little more magical from a family hungry for fame. The Balls have come to the promised land. And the unique idiosyncrasies of Lithuanian culture may just be Ball In the Family’s newfound rocket fuel to success.
As a person with one single Ball on his pop culture radar—that Ball being Lonzo, the actual NBA player—I’m buying in. LaVar's not my favored brand of entertainment. His behavior can feel too cruel and manipulative at times. But take that same LaVar and sit him next to a local LKL TV announcer performing his spectacular rendition of Welcome to Lithuania?
This LKL TV commentator felt like @Lavarbigballer, @MELOD1P and @LiAngeloBall needed a special welcome to Lithuania and burst into song at the beginning of the broadcast of today's Vytautas game.
I am dying, call an ambulance.pic.twitter.com/EnDNAwVYN1
— Simonas Baranauskas (@LithuaniaBasket) December 12, 2017
I’m watching every single time.
Nobody wants to watch LaVar strut around another Laker game. We want to watch him have a panic attack in a hot air balloon over Vilnius while LaMelo maintains a stoic expression. We want to watch him deliver a fantastical sermon to a mass of nine at St. Anne’s Church. We want to watch a brash, confident man and his family be removed from their comfort zone because the ensuing chaos is always just a little more fun, right? Right.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Balls have found their court.
