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The Big Baller Brand took on a life of its own during Summer 2017. During that time, Lonzo Ball, his father Lavar Ball, and the entire family watched their brand take off nationally.
Lonzo Ball was drafted to the Los Angeles Lakers that summer and proceeded to play in the NBA Summer League. During the summer league, Lonzo decided to make his rookie debut in a pair of his custom Big Baller Brand ZOs2. Lonzo tested out all different brands throughout the summer league, including Adidas, Nike, Jordan, and Under Armour.
As it turns out, the BBB shoe that Lonzo wore was never released. While the public never knew why, we now have answers.
During a new episode of the LightHearted Podcast, Lonzo revealed that the shoe he wore in his debut of Summer League began to rip.
“No one knows the real story about them shoes though,” he shared. “Them ZO2s I was playing in, they was not ready. No one knows this, but D-Mo [Darren Moore, Ball’s manager] had a backpack, and he had an extra like four pairs of shoes in there because I had to switch them every quarter, because they would just rip.”
He continued, “I had to debut them. We went so far with it, it was like, cool, I can get a quarter in, but that’s it. And it’s crazy, because right when I switched my shoes, all of a sudden, magically I got good again.”
The Big Baller Brand has had numerous problems in the years since, including Allen Foster, one of the business heads behind BBB, stealing money from Lonzo. These transgressions have resulted in Lonzo taking control of his own career and coming clean about a lot, especially pertaining to BBB.
The ZO2 was eventually replaced with the ZO2 Prime Remix after Big Baller Brand sought out the help of Brandblack.
