In a few hours, Colin Cowherd went from praising LaVar Ball to bashing him

On-air personalities changing their takes sometimes happens, and sometimes happens quickly (as we saw with Mike Francesa’s changing views on Malik Monk over the span of a week), but FS1’s Colin Cowherd may still have set the record Monday. On The Herd (noon-3 Eastern), Cowherd said LaVar Ball was setting Lonzo and his other sons up for success. On Speak For Yourself (5 p.m. Eastern), Cowherd said LaVar Ball was a “clown show” and “embarrassing.” Awkwardly, Fox social posted clips of the two only six minutes apart Monday night, as Tommy Bennett noted. Here’s a combined clip of the two segments:

And here are the full individual segments:

LaVar Ball is setting Lonzo up for success pic.twitter.com/aWBJmKBjWw

— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) March 27, 2017

"[LaVar Ball] has gone from concerned and ambitious father to a clown show… he's embarrassing.” — @ColinCowherd pic.twitter.com/XGxjt3EbnG

— Speak (@SpeakOnFS1) March 27, 2017

On The Herd, Cowherd made fun of those who are criticizing LaVar, saying “He got all three of his sons scholarships to UCLA, bad parent. But if I said “I know this parent, they got three of their sons to Harvard, you’d say ‘Great parent.’ You don’t think they put academic pressure on their kids? Lonzo got beat up by Kentucky, no great shame, Kentucky’s got the most talented backcourt in college basketball, regardless of if they made the Final Four. And people say LaVar’s bad, LaVar’s bad, too much pressure, LaVar’s bad! We blanche, we cringe”

“Yet on the same weekend, you don’t like the way LaVar Ball parents, there was a quote that was being passed around the internet this weekend that drew a full head of steam and everyone loved. Conservatives loved it, liberals loved it, young people loved it, old people loved it, coaches loved it, non-jocks loved it, everyone loved this quote. Frank Martin’s quote was ‘You know what makes me sick to my stomach? When I hear grown people say kids have changed. We’ve changed as adults. We demand less of kids. We expect less of kids. We make their lives earlier instead of preparing them for what life is truly about. We’re the ones that have changed.'”

“So what is it, folks? Do you love that quote, or what LaVar’s doing? Because that quote is what LaVar’s doing.” He then goes to talk about Spelling Bee champions who went on to succeed elsewhere despite pressure.

On Speak For Yourself, Cowherd’s tune was drastically different, criticizing Lonzo for playing poorly against better teams and then saying “What’s happened to LaVar Ball over the last week, he’s gone from concerned and ambitious father to a clown show. LaVar Ball sort of likes himself on TV now and sees himself as a TV star. At first I was okay with it. He was a little rambunctious. He was a really supportive dad who was a little over the top. His last two TV appearances, now, he needs to pull it back in. He’s embarrassing. If I was his son, on the way home, I’d be like ‘Reel it back in, you’re embarrassing me.”

That’s a big shift in opinion over a few hours, without a lot to clearly support it. It’s possible that Cowherd watched LaVar Ball’s appearance on First Take Monday in between shows and decided to change his opinion, but even so, that feels like a big jump from “LaVar’s setting his sons up for success” to “LaVar’s a clown show.” This is a huge shift in opinion, and it’s not clear what caused it. It definitely doesn’t make Cowherd look good, either. But, as we all know, he thinks it’s more important to be entertaining than correct, and he certainly achieved that here. He definitely embraced debate…just both sides of the debate.

[Tommy Bennett on Twitter]