Report: Lakers ask Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma to tone it down with social media roasts

Say goodbye to the social media roasts and the diss tracks. The playful public jesting in the close friendship between Los Angeles Lakers teammates Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball will be no more after team brass asked the two youngsters to tone it down, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Ohm Youngmisuk.

Lonzo Ball recently dropped a Kyle Kuzma diss track

Ball and Kuzma are close friends, and like close friends do, they enjoy ribbing one another. The most recent development in this online jesting was Ball’s diss track “Kylie Kuzma,” aimed at his fellow Laker.

The track included some seemingly deep-cutting lyrics, including some lines that referenced the lack of a relationship between Kuzma and his father. Kuzma’s mother, Karri, chimed in on Twitter shortly after Ball’s song was released.

Kuzma and Ball’s online spars have included plenty of tweets, Instagram posts and Snapchats that deal with everything from hairstyle to fashion to dietary habits and more. Occasionally other players have joined in, too. But it seems the song was the new development that forced management to step in. Per Shelburne and Youngmisuk, “the Lakers had grown concerned about the increasingly personal nature of some of the recent roasting between two of their young stars.”

Both players agreed to tone down their barbs against one another.

Lakers want to avoid a D’Angelo Russell-esque incident

In 2016, the Lakers — muddled in a lost season — found themselves in an embarrassing spotlight when D’Angelo Russell filmed Nick Young talking about cheating on his fiancee. The team traded Russell months later, and Young also left the City of Angels following the season. While that incident and this one have no connection, the Lakers’ front office opted to be safe instead of sorry, ending the good-natured ribbing before it could become anything close to a problem.

The Lakers have a big summer ahead

Rumors have attached big-name free agents like LeBron James and Paul George to the Lakers. The team has plenty of young, promising talent — Ball averaged 10.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game, and Kuzma, Julius Randle and Brandon Ingram each averaged 16.1 points per game — and will have the cap room to make some big moves this offseason. To get two of those young players on the same page is an important step as the team hopes to court superstars to the Staples Center.

More from Yahoo Sports:
• U.S., Canada, Mexico win bid for 2026 World Cup
• Dan Wetzel: Sure, winning World Cup bid is cool, but can U.S. finally win games?
• Maryland OL dies days after being hospitalized post-workout
• Ice Cube on Kap: ‘I knew his message would be hijacked’