Im gonna give yall the real deal. 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 Gelos bangerTweakerwas blowing up around the world, in January. Funny how life works sometimes.
I had an infection on my foot that started spreading through my blood due to not paying attention to my diabetes. I ended up having to get my leg amputated. First, they cut off a couple of toes. Then they cut off my foot. Then they said,We gotta go almost knee high for another surgery.Three surgeries. And then there were also the blood transfusions. Not one, not two, not three, four different times.
All those surgeries and blood transfusions, it made me question whether it was worth going through it sometimes. It made me think,Man, just kill me and let me go about my business.It made me think that maybe its time for me to shut it down.
But then seeing what my boys are doing out there, theyre like,Dad youre the toughest dude I know.That made me keep going. Even though Im a bad manI dont need muchit was good to have that backing from my boys. One of the things that makes me go is when they are all together. When they are all together, I feel strong.
When I was in the hospital andTweakerwas 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 yall are together. Cause the more you guys are together, the better I feel.Thats all I kept thinking about when I was in the hospitalmy boys being together.
What I want people to understand is that anytime youre dealing with an illness or something serious like that, one thing you better have is family to get you through that stuff.
Im the Big Baller. Im hard to kill. But I must admit that my boys kept me rolling. Cause a couple of times, I was like,I cant do no more blood transfusions. I cant do no more operations. Im just ready to shut it down. Its enough for me.But Im here for a bigger purpose.
Watching my boys play and watching Gelo perform and do his thinghes been singing and rapping all his life, so its good to see the success that hes having nowthat made me feel better. So, then I was like,Let me go ahead and just do these other surgeries and blood transfusions.
From my experience the last couple months, I want to get in peoples heads the importance of taking care of your healthespecially Black people, because sometimes were not trying to go to the hospital, we will try to sleep it off or say,Yeah, well get to it later.And sometimes its a little more serious than what you think.
I look at my situation like this:Ive talked to some of my people thats my age thats been calling me that have cancer. And they say,We thought we got it all, but we didnt, and so the organs are getting tore up in the inside. Now these folks are dying.And these are my friends that are around my age, in the50sand dying of cancer.Just for me to have my foot cut off, I got another one. Im good to have my foot cut off as opposed to being dead. But if I dont go at the end of last year during Christmas to get that infection looked at, [an infection] thats been around for maybe a month or two on the bottom of my foot, this would be a different type of story.
The doctors said,Big Baller, you were very close to having to shut it down.But they were quick enough to give me the blood transfusions and keep that poison from going throughout my body. So, now Im telling folks, if you got diabetes, dont just be like,Oh, thats just diabetes. I still eat my sugar, but I pay attention to it and do it in moderation. Get your checkups, do what youre supposed to do. If you dont have insurance, go to urgent care. Because Im going to tell you this,a little amputation and a little of this, it could all have been prevented.
I realized through this process that if you stop trying to waste time feeling sorry for yourself and figure out what the next step is, then youd be able to better deal with any life challenge. I look at it like this,OK, my foot is gone, but my brain is still here. So, I might not be able to move as fast as I did and do other things like that, but whats the next step? Do I keep talking about the brand? Still keep talking about shoes? Still go out to meet people?
It makes me feel way better in looking at the outcome to go forward because I still want to be on this journey. And I look at it like this, too:I got a lot of limbs to come off. Im hard to kill. I got some bigger stuff that the Big Baller still gotta do. And that guy upstairs put me here for a reason. And Im gonna get it done.
As long as I can smile and see my boys, Im good. But this whole experience made me realize, [youre]lucky that you have family to get you through some stuff. But dont feel sorry for me. You could be missing something, too. You better be careful. But thats how you gotta respond to that. I still got folks around me that work hard and understand my drive to build a brand, to make shoes and to make other folks have the confidence in what theyre doing.
Please understand that being successful is in your own mind. Its not how much money you make. You could be successful if you can stay on your own two feet and got your own money coming in. Or if you come from a different situation thats a little more dire and you come out of that?Thats success for you. Success doesnt have to be,Does he have a Rolex?
I noticed one of the photos SLAM took during this cover shoot. And most of the young guys, theyre not going to get this. Gelo had diamonds on his neck, diamonds on his wrist.Pull up with a diamond chain. This is usually how people show that they got it. Especially young people. They point to the jewelry. But I point to the Triple Bs on my chest. This brand, its worth more than your diamonds on your neck.To me, a brand is one of the biggest things you can own. So, I dont wear any watches and chains. I dont need to.For me, its all aboutTriple Bs, the brand.
To all the loyal fans, those who have stuck with us through thick and thin, I love all yall. Keep doing your thing, because it aint gonna stop meit aint gonna make me go or stop.But only be true to yourself. If you dont like us, get to the side. If you do like us, roll with us. Its all good. But Im gonna keep smiling and grinning while Im going, until the day Big Baller shuts it down. But I tell you what, when I do shut it down, youre gonna remember who I was. I aint gonna change nobody, but Im gonna change this culture. Ownership is everything.
I was telling Gelo over the phone the other day, I always said you was going to be a monster with whatever you didwhether it be basketball, rapping, singing! Its all the sameits entertainment. And my boys can entertain. I also remember the boys feeling so good for Gelo in January. Anything thats happening thats good for Gelo, its good for them.
The fact thatthey are alltogether as a unit, it made me feel great. Everybodys always saying now,Oh, LaVar went three for three.NoIve been three for three since the moment they came out the womb. So, Im not going to wait until now to say,Finally! I was two for three, but now Im three for three.Ive always been three for three! I got three of the coldest monsters in the world. Thats what Ive told everybody for years. But they used to call me crazy. But my boys are reallylike that, as the kids say. No matter what theyre doing, theyre going to be successful at it. As long as Im seeing my boys smiling and doing what they do, then nothing else matters.
Everybody wants to comment on us now. So, you got people now being, like, LaVar is father of the yeargreatest father of all time. There are a lot of people that could be father of the year, but you want to put me on the pedestal because I got the platform now. What other sons are doing all of this right now? I mean, before you had me on another pedestalOh, LaVar is crazy like Ja Morants dad and all these other folks dads,they said.
Now they changed the narrativeOh shoot, Gelo is successful. Oh, well, LaVars good now.Yeah, because everybodys worried about that money. That money changes a lot of folks. People that I havent heard from in a long time now want to reach out to me.
With Gelo, whether you like him or dont like him, its fine with us. It doesnt stop us from doing what were doing. See, a lot of people be, like,Oh, Gelo just got his so-called newfound fame.No, he was famous when he came out the womb. Whether it be basketball or singing or rapping, hes always been good. So, Im not going to feel a different way about it now and be like,Oh, Im so happy for Gelo. Ive been happy for Gelo since he been my son. This is nothing new for me, it was a matter of time.
The marketability of Gelo is on a whole different level. And I know the people thats backing him, they see that. That boy got a look, got a sound. He got something you can count on that [can] go further in the business, as far as endorsements and all things that come with this entertainment.
To me, fatherhood, at the end of the day, as a parent, you just want to make sure that when you leave this earth, your kids are well taken care of. Whether you give them some money, or you give them a trade where they can take care of themselves. Theres a lot of people trying to be fathers, but at least from what I do on this platform, is to show people, Hey, stick around for your kids, regardless of what goes on with that woman. Stick around for your kids and do the best you can for something that you brought into this world. If your kid aint gonna be 6-5 or 6-8, you better put them in an education. If theyre going to be big, stay with them. If theyre going to be in sports, get them the right way. Fatherhood to me is something thats mine, and Im going to care about ittil I die. And seeing all my boys success is what keeps me going.
I just hate that they put all the numbers of what the boys are making in the paper. Everybody now is like,Gelomade it!Whats $13 million compared to what Lonzo made? $80-something million.Andwhats $80-something million compared to what Melo is making? $200-something million. Then they wanna add it all up and be like,They made itthey dont have to do nothing else in life!
So, were just going to sit around with a bunch of money and dont do nothing impactful and help people with it? At the end of the day, you have to help somebody do something. Whether it be one person, two people,10people, a thousand peopleyou have to help somebody do something. Thats the bottom line. Because after you done bought everythingwhats really left?
