A friendly rivalry between teammates is one thing, but the escalating social media barbs between Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma have apparently gone too far.
The Los Angeles Lakers have spoken to Ball and Kuzma about toning down their “feud” following Ball’s rap song that insulted Kuzma earlier this week, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Ohm Youngmisuk.
Though Kuzma and Ball are close friends, the Lakers had grown concerned about the increasingly personal nature of some of the recent roasting between two of their young stars, sources told ESPN.
The back-and-forth ribbing went on throughout their rookie season, escalating from tweets and Instagram posts to Kuzma’s recent Bleacher Report “Player Hater of the Year” Award video making jokes at Ball’s expense and Ball’s response with the track titled “Kylie Kuzma” released on Monday.
The track included a lyric about Kuzma’s lack of a relationship with his biological father. Kuzma was raised by his mother, Karri.
Kuzma’s mother reacted to the song on Twitter, telling her son and Lonzo to “go back to work.”
Everyone’s had their fun now get back to work.
— Karri Kuzma 🗣 #LakeShow 💛 (@KarriKuzma) June 13, 2018
That seems like sound advice, especially considering the Lakers are trying to recruit some of the biggest free agents on the market this summer.
According to the ESPN report, both players have agreed to keep things civil moving forward, and there are no lingering issues from Ball’s diss track.
Kuzma was the 27th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft but arguably had a better rookie season than Ball. Kuzma was named to the NBA’s All-Rookie first team while Ball made the second team.
Kuzma averaged 16.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 77 games — 37 of which were starts — while Ball averaged 10.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 7.2 assists while starting 50 of 52 games.