Los Angeles Lakers fans can finally rejoice now that they have a starting-caliber center. ESPN insider Shams Charania reported on Wednesday that the Lakers had signed Deandre Ayton to a two-year deal worth $16 million. Ayton certainly is an improvement over Jaxson Hayes, but his past may dampen Lakers fans’ optimism about the big man’s future with the team.
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The 7-foot big man is still just 26 years old and can turn things around for himself now that he’ll be playing alongside the likes of Luca Doncic and LeBron James. But it’s also possible that his attitude continues to hold him back from unlocking his full potential.
He has been known to push back against authority. Rap artist Lil Wayne once witnessed Ayton in a heated exchange with former Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams. NBA analyst Skip Bayless told the story on his self-named podcast.
“I will never forget the story my man Lil Wayne told me after Game 7 of the 2022 Western Conference Semifinals,” Skip Bayless recounted on his podcast. “Suns’ coach at the time, Monty Williams, yanked and benched Deandre Ayton in that game.”
That game was between the Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Mavericks. Doncic and the Mavs went into Phoenix and gave them a beating. Dallas went on to win by 33 points, but led by as much as 46 points.
Despite Game 7 requiring a team’s best players to be on the court, Williams couldn’t put up with Ayton’s lack of effort and pulled him. Ayton only played 17 minutes in the win-or-go-home matchup, and that didn’t sit well with the big man. What happened next startled Lil Wayne so much that he called Skip to tell him.
“Within earshot of Lil Wayne, Monty and Ayton had a shouting match the likes of which Wayne had never heard between a player and a coach in such a public setting. He called to tell me, ‘It just got vicious. It just got so profanely ugly,” Bayless revealed.
Monty Williams is one of the calmest coaches in the NBA, which is why the altercation was so surprising. Bayless brought up this moment as a stark warning to Ayton’s new team: “Lakers, beware. You have been warned.”
Ayton was the top overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. His new teammate, Luka Doncic, was the third pick that year. The league’s reigning MVP and Finals MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was also in the same class, as were Jaren Jackson Jr., Trae Young, and Jalen Brunson. Although he has had a solid career, he hasn’t quite lived up to expectations, especially considering how the talent selected after him has fared.
Will a change of scenery and the good company of some of the top talent in the NBA finally do some good for Ayton? Or are we going to see much of the same from the 26-year-old moving forward, as Skip predicts?
