Whose gonna Wear A Loser's Shoe?, I Know I Wouldn't;Lonzo Ball

SAY WHAT YOU will about his tactics, or his tact, but LaVar Ball has figured out how to get -- and keep -- our attention. In less than a year, he's gone from just another suburban helicopter parent to a household name and wannabe marketing mogul. Big Baller Brand, the shoe and apparel company LaVar founded, has organically generated the kind of publicity for which companies spend millions.

There have already been two weeks of news cycles reacting to the launch of Lonzo's first signature shoe, the shockingly priced ZO2 -- $495 a pair. That's after weeks of news cycles about shoe companies spurning the Big Baller Brand itself and LaVar's proclamation that his sons were worth "a billion" as a brand.

And just wait for the reaction once he starts talking about the documentary and commercials he says his Big Baller Media group is producing, or the sports agency, the Ball Sports Group, that represents Lonzo.

It's straight out of the Kardashian playbook, authored by momager extraordinaire Kris Jenner, who recognized early on that no matter how outrageous celebrities might act, people will pay even more outrageous prices to wear, sniff and watch them.

"When you're exclusive, that's when folks are like, 'I have to have that s---,'" LaVar explains. "People are like, 'I don't like that LaVar Ball, but I gotta get that Triple-Bs stuff.'"

But there's a bit more to this than the empty-calorie Kardashian Khaos. LaVar has three sons with NBA potential and an anti-establishment message that's tapped into larger trends toward independence in music (think Jay Z's record-streaming service, Tidal) and sports (Floyd Mayweather's Mayweather Promotions).

Those stars waited until they were stars to cut out the middleman. But already LaVar's called out: the shoe companies, the NCAA, AAU basketball teams run by shoe companies, retail stores taking a cut of shoe and merchandise sales -- basically all the gatekeepers of the world he's trying to conquer.

Is he trying to change the system or work it? That might not matter, as long as at least one of his sons lives up to the hype he's created for them.

"People don't understand the movement," he says. "This is a power play to show everybody, 'Yo, we don't need you to make this s---.'"