LaVar Ball Talks Amputation, Health Scares & The Love He Has For His Sons
Written by djfrosty on March 19, 2025
LaVar Ball first emerged on the scene as a larger-than-life figure who touted the basketball skills of his three sons as the next big thing in professional sports. Recently, LaVar Ball went through a medical procedure to remove his foot and explained in a new column piece that complications from diabetes led to the decision.
LaVar Ball, 57, penned an exclusive column for the April/May issue of SLAM magazine with Ball gracing the covers of the publications with his sons LiAngelo aka Gelo, LaMelo, and Lonzo. Ball’s relentless promotion of his sons and their athletic exploits made the Ball family one of the most intriguing names in sports and both Lonzo and LaMelo have flourished in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls and Charlotte Hornets respectively.
In the SLAM column, the patriarch of the Ball family gets candid about the complications from diabetes that led to the amputation of his foot, which caused him to face his mortality. However, he found strength not only in the success of Lonzo and LaMelo on the court but also in Gelo’s big hit “Tweaker” which he references several times throughout the piece.”
From SLAM:
When I was in the hospital and “Tweaker” was starting to become a global hit, I had a couple of FaceTime conversations with Gelo, but I was kind of slurring because I was all drugged up with all the medication they were putting in me. It was hard for me to really dial in on what I was trying to say. Even though I was kind of slurring with my speech, Gelo understood what I was trying to say. I remember just telling him, Keep doing your thing. And make sure you take care of your brothers. Just make sure all of y’all are together. Cause the more you guys are together, the better I feel. That’s all I kept thinking about when I was in the hospital—my boys being together.
Read the story in full here.
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Photo: Jacob Kupferman / Getty