The third and final Ball brother has announced that he will be declaring for the 2020 NBA Draft. Lamelo Ball, the brother of Pelican’s guard Lonzo Ball, is considered to be one of the top draft picks in this year’s 2020 NBA Draft. But his journey to the NBA is a lot different compared to most prospects players in this upcoming draft. That’s because throughout this journey, the spotlight was always on him. In this blog, I’m going to take you throughout the rollercoaster journey of Lamelo Ball. We will see the rise, the fall, and the journey to rise back to the top.
Early Life
Lamelo Ball was born on August 22nd, 2001 to his parents, Lavar and Tina Ball. He is the youngest Ball brother in the family to his two older brothers, Lonzo and LiAngelo. When Lamelo was four, he was trained by his father Lavar to start playing basketball with his older brothers. His father let him play on the same team as his brothers so Lamelo could face older competition. Lamelo even played with his brothers on the same AAU team when he was 13, which helped his confidence and helped improve his game. Not only he was he playing up with his older brothers at the age of 13, he already committed to play college basketball at UCLA.
Chino Hills Freshman Year 2015-16: The Perfect season
As a 5’8 freshman in high school, Lamelo Ball was the starting point guard in Chino Hills High School, a public high school located in Chino Hills, California. He was in a powerful starting lineup that included himself, his two older brothers Lonzo and LiAngelo Ball, Eli Scott, and Onyeka Okongwu. This team was a team that could score in hurry, and played a smothering full court defense. His team was dominating as that team would go on to win the CIF Southern Section Division title, the MNC national championship, and finish 35-0 on the season. This gained national attention, and was a starting point of the Ball family starting to take off. Lamelo averaged 16.4 PPG, while being ranked as one of the top freshman in the nation and winning the MaxPreps National Freshman of the Year.
Chino Hills Sophomore Year 2016-17: No Lonzo, No Problem
Lamelo grew to be 6’2 by the time his sophomore season came around. With his older brother Lonzo off to play college ball at UCLA, Lamelo had to step up in his new role at Chino Hills playing along side brother LiAngelo Ball. Lamelo was not afraid of his new role, as his game evolved immediately. Lamelo was making worldwide attention after a video was posted of him pulling up and draining a half court just a few seconds into one of his games. Not only did that shot go viral, he also went viral for scoring 92 points in a high school game against Los Osos High School. Lamelo averaged 26.7 PPG, while leading Chino Hills to a 31-3 season. To cap off his sophomore season, when he played for his fathers AAU team in the summer, Lamelo got to go up against a future NBA lottery pick Zion Williamson and his AAU team in one of the most hyped up AAU games in the world. The spotlight was on the whole family in 2017, with Lonzo balling out at UCLA and declaring for the NBA Draft, LiAngelo going to play college ball at UCLA the upcoming semester, Lamelo being one of the top guards in the nation, Lavar Ball and his company Big Baller Brand taking the world by storm, no one was slowing down this family.
Junior Year: Leaving Chino Hills to be Homeschooled
At the start of Lamelo’s junior year, The Ball Family was a wide known name. Lonzo got drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers, LiAngelo was the starting forward at UCLA, and Lamelo was prepping for a big season at Chino Hills. But at the beginning of his junior year, Lamelo was out of high school as Lavar Ball disapproved of the new head coach at Chino Hills. Lamelo would go on to be homeschooled, as he would train with his father at home until he was eligible to declare for the NBA Draft in the future. But those plans would soon change after Lavar pulled LiAngelo out of UCLA after LiAngelo was suspended from the team for stealing sunglasses at a Louis Vuitton store in China. As Lavar had two sons not playing any competition basketball, he made the decision that it would be best to take the two Ball brothers overseas to play professional basketball before LiAngelo and Lamelo would be eligible for the NBA Draft.
A 16 year old playing professionally in Lithuania
Lamelo and his brother LiAngelo both signed with an agent, which made Lamelo ineligible to play college basketball if playing overseas back fired. Lamelo and LiAngelo both signed a contract with Prienai, an LKL team in Lithuania. Lamelo was now 6’4, 16 years old, and playing against grown men professionally overseas. He was one of the youngest Americans to ever sign a contract with a professional team. As during the time of all of this, it seemed like this was a perfect scenario for Lamelo and LiAngelo. But it turned out as a failed experiment as neither of the boys were receiving much playing time. Lamelo averaged 6.5 PPG, shooting 26.8% from the field, in about 12 minutes of play. As the team was not winning games, and Lamelo not seeing much playing time; Lavar once again made the decision to take Lamelo and LiAngelo off the Prienai team. Lamelo and his family went back to the US, as Lamelo was now going to join his father’s new JBA league, while LiAngelo was prepping for the 2018 NBA Draft.
JBA Los Angeles Ballers: The Face of the JBA
After a disappointing stint in Lithuania, Lamelo was ready for a clean slate with the Los Angeles Ballers of the JBA. The Junior Basketball Association (JBA) was a league started by his father Lavar Ball as a way for athletes coming out of high school to get paid to play basketball and forgoing college before the NBA. Lamelo Ball, who grew to 6’6, was the face of this new league in hopes to draw the JBA some attention. As the new league started, it wasn’t gaining any attention from a national level. There would be JBA games that would have empty arenas, and there was NBA scouts who were questioning the competition level of the JBA. Lamelo Ball was putting in dominating numbers averaging 39.6 PPG, 14.6 RPG, and 11.5 APG. As those were dominating numbers, NBA scouts were not taking Lamelo Ball very seriously with the competition he was playing against. Lamelo and his LA Ballers team won the JBA Championship, after his brother LiAngelo joined the team half way through the season after failing to get drafted in the NBA Draft. As Lamelo was winning in his fathers JBA league, his draft stock was dropping.
Going back overseas with the JBA All-Stars
Lamelo was selected to be apart of the JBA USA team that was a team filled with the best players from the JBA. The trip overseas was for JBA players to get some experience playing against grown men professionally in hopes to catch the eye of teams in the NBA and overseas team. This world tour was huge for Lamelo as this could be his chance to reboot his draft stock by playing against professionals. Lamelo was putting up solid numbers overseas, but still wasn’t getting the attention from NBA scouts. His draft projection for the 2020 draft was from as high as an early second round pick to possibly going undrafted. As Lamelo was not enjoying his time playing overseas, Lamelo and Lavar made the decision to pull from the JBA USA tour to go back to high school to play basketball.
Spire Institute Senior Year: The Return to High School
Lamelo Ball enrolled into Spire Institute, a prep school located in Geneva, Ohio. As Lamelo made the return to high school, the buzz started to come back to him. At the beginning when Lamelo arrived at Spire Institute , there were schools that were cancelling to play Spire, because they didn’t like the fact he was an overseas professional basketball player on a high school team. As teams were cancelling, it didn’t seem to slow down Lamelo as he was catching the eye of NBA scouts again. As a 6’7 point guard, Lamelo was averaging around 21 PPG as his 2020 draft projection was now to a mid first round pick to a late first round pick. With Lamelo starting to get media attention, he was not selected to the McDonald’s Senior All-Star game due to him being ineligible from playing professionally overseas. Not only he was ineligible for the All-Star game, but was ruled ineligible to play college basketball. With having to wait a year before declaring for the 2020 NBA Draft, Lamelo decided to go to Australia to play in the NBL league.
Illawara Hawks: Taking Australia by storm
Lamelo Ball signed a contract with the Illawara Hawks, a professional National Basketball League (NBL) team located in Wollongong, New South Wales in Australia. Lamelo was much more prepared going to Australia as he had the experience playing professional basketball when he was 16. In a preseason tournament, Lamelo was putting up good numbers for the Hawks as he climbed to the Top 3 of the 2020 NBA Draft board putting him talks to possibly be the first overall pick. Even though Illawara was not winning many games, Lamelo was putting up solid numbers. Through 12 games, Ball averaged 17 PPG, 7.4 RPG, and 6.8 APG before going down with a foot injury. Lamelo and his manager made the decision that to would be best for him to sit out the remainder of the season and head back to the US to prep for the Draft. As Lamelo ended his NBL career, Lamelo walked winning the NBL’s Rookie of the Year Award.
NBA Draft: The Future Awaits
Lamelo Ball was there the night when his brother Lonzo got drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers. Now Lamelo will soon wait his turn to hear NBA commissioner Adam Silver call his name to be drafted. As we don’t know when the NBA Draft will be, Lamelo’s journey to the NBA Draft has been a crazy ride. He has the potential to be the best Ball brother out of the three. Lamelo can shoot the ball, play with confidence, and has a very Basketball IQ.
Just think if the Warriors draft him on draft night. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Lamelo Ball all on the same team……….THREE SPLASH BROTHERS!?
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