LaMelo Ball has doubled down on his stance that changing his son’s diapers is not his responsibility.
The Minnesota Timberwolves guard, 25, made the comments during Wednesday night’s “Inside the NBA” broadcast, leaving co-host Ernie Johnson Jr. Visibly surprised by the admission. Ball shares 9-month-old son LaOne with girlfriend Ana Montana, a 37-year-old model born Analicia Chaves.
“My girl do all that. It’s love, for sure,” Ball told the TNT hosts.
He continued to elaborate on the arrangement without prompting, adding, “She do all that, you know what I’m saying? We got a good game plan going on.”
Ball framed the division of labor in transactional terms. “So I know what I gotta do to bring to the table. She know what she gotta do to bring to the table,” he said.
Johnson, a father himself, pushed back gently. He told Ball that he didn’t know “what [he was] missing” by skipping diaper duty.
The point guard offered a partial clarification. “I did it before, you feel me?” Ball responded. “I’ve definitely did it before, [but] it’s just not my job. You know what I’m saying? It’s not my job,” he reiterated.
The couple’s path to parenthood became public only after months of privacy. Montana and Ball began dating in 2021 and went Instagram official in June 2023. They welcomed LaOne in January but kept the birth under wraps until May, when both parents posted about him simultaneously.
Montana’s announcement carried emotional weight. “To my little ONE🤍🙏🏾 thank you for choosing me to be your mommy 🥹🙏🏾,” she captioned her May 10 Instagram post.
“I love you more than any word could ever describe! You’re my purpose and you’ve helped me become the woman I was always destined to be! Before I became your mommy, my heart was always looking for you 🥹🥰 and we finally found each other in Gods perfect divine timing,” Montana added.
The timing of the reveal served a dual purpose. Alongside their personal news, Ball and Montana launched I Am Fertility, a nonprofit grant initiative supporting women navigating fertility treatments and IVF journeys.
Montana closed her announcement with a message to the infant: “We love you so much baby boy! You are living proof that dreams come true 🤍.”
Ball’s on-air comments arrived just months after that carefully orchestrated public introduction of their family, creating a stark contrast between the sentimental rollout and his practical disengagement from day-to-day caregiving.
The diaper remarks have drawn sharp criticism across social media, with users labeling the behavior everything from outdated to actively harmful. The backlash centers on Ball’s framing of basic parenting as outside his responsibilities despite his substantial wealth and flexible schedule as a professional athlete.
Ball’s basketball career has already weathered significant disruption. The Charlotte Hornets traded him to Minnesota this offseason after multiple injury-plagued seasons, and he has played just 58 total games across the past three NBA campaigns.
The couple has not publicly responded to the reaction following Ball’s televised statements.