LaVar Ball Discusses Health Woes Leading To Foot Amputation

The Big Baller Brand founder admitted that not taking care of his diabetes led to the life-altering surgery.

LaVar Ball, father of NBA basketball players Lonzo and LaMelo Ball and basketball player-turned-rapper, GELO, offered a first-person account to SLAM detailing his diabetes struggle, which led to the amputation of his right foot.

The founder of Big Baller Brand became a public figure for boasting about the impact his sons would make in the world of basketball before his oldest, Lonzo, entered the NBA.

The eldest Ball went to TikTok to confirm reports of having his foot amputated in February.

In SLAM, he explained that his health scare happened around the same time that LiAngelo, who goes by the moniker GELO, was making noise on streaming and radio platforms with his viral single, “Tweaker.”

“…Recently, I had some personal issues I had to deal with. I had an infection, where I was in the hospital for over a month. This happened right in the middle of when Gelo’s banger “Tweaker” was blowing up around the world, in January. Funny how life works sometimes.”

Due to not paying attention to his diabetes, LaVar Ball said, an infection on his foot led to the amputation. It started with just a “couple of toes,” which led to the foot being amputated—three surgeries as well as four blood transfusions.

LaVar Ball said he drew strength from his sons.

“I’m the Big Baller. I’m hard to kill. But I must admit that my boys kept me rolling. Cause a couple of times, I was like, I can’t do no more blood transfusions. I can’t do no more operations. I’m just ready to shut it down. It’s enough for me. But I’m here for a bigger purpose.”

Part of that is to get Black people to take care of their bodies.

“From my experience the last couple months, I want to get in people’s heads the importance of taking care of your health—especially Black people, because sometimes we’re not trying to go to the hospital, we will try to sleep it off or say, Yeah, we’ll get to it later. And sometimes it’s a little more serious than what you think.”

Ball also sat down with SLAM for an interview about his health travails.