The Los Angeles Lakers have the semblance of a coaching staff for the first time in a month. Frank Vogel has been hired as the team’s head coach and Jason Kidd is joining him as a “prominent” assistant.
Kidd’s hiring has been written in the stars for some time now as the former Milwaukee Bucks head coach reportedly impressed the Lakers in his interview to the point of the organization wanting to force him on the staff of whomever they hired to be their head coach.
Kidd’s relationship with LeBron James has been spoken about as a positive. But it turns out the Hall of Fame point guard also has a small relationship with Lonzo Ball.
According to Brad Turner of the LA Times, the Lakers point guard and Kidd spoke together on the phone after Lakers’ center Tyson Chandler asked Kidd, a former teammate, to do so.
The content of that discussion and whether the two spoke again is unknown. It does make sense, however, that Ball would seek Kidd’s guidance as the two have been compared since Lonzo’s one season at UCLA.
While Kidd’s hiring is uninspiring for a host of reasons, one positive that could come out of it is that mentorship for Ball. Lonzo taking that next step would be huge for a franchise stuck in limbo and could be the key to having tangible success with LeBron.
