Speak it into existence: Lonzo, like Curry, says team will "figure it out"

ByLAW MURRAY
October 29, 2017, 3:45 AM

— -- Los Angeles Lakers rookie point guard Lonzo Ball took Saturday's 96-81 loss in Salt Lake City to the Utah Jazz relatively hard. He took responsibility, saying, "Put this loss on me" to the media after the Lakers fell to 2-4 on the young season.

Ball wasn't done talking after the postgame media session, though. Later Saturday night, Ball tweeted, "If you not with us now don't be with us later ... we gone figure it out."

That may sound like a dispensable tweet designed to motivate a specific fan base and audience. However, similar words were said by a rookie point guard back in 2009: Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry.

Following a 108-94 loss on the road to the Indiana Pacers on November 11, 2009, the 2009-2010 Golden State Warriors dropped to 2-5. Curry, then a rookie who was taken with the seventh pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, had a message for Warriors fans that, to that point, had seen the team miss the postseason for two straight seasons and 13 of the previous 15 seasons:

The Warriors would miss the postseason each of Curry's first three seasons, bringing their postseason futility mark to 17 of 18 seasons. But you know what happened from there. Curry would lead the Warriors to the postseason each year from 2012 through at least 2017, winning two MVP awards and two NBA championships in the process. It took some time, but the Warriors more than "figured it out."

The Lakers are in the midst of a franchise-worst postseason drought of four seasons. But this isn't the first time that a member of the Ball family channeled Curry, intentionally or not. Ball wore Curry's signature Under Armour shoe during the Las Vegas Summer League. Ball's father LaVar Ball has also compared his son to Curry on multiple occasions.

Perhaps Ball's tweet isn't prophetic, and he isn't a future MVP or champion with the Lakers. But the blueprint has been laid out there by his fellow point guard in Northern California - and let's be real, no one in 2009 could see the peak-2010s Warriors coming either.