Before Lonzo Ball would be Drafted 2nd overall in 2017 and find himself a home with the LA
Lakers making his father Lavar a very happy man.
Before Lonzo dropped his own shoe line and market a signature line of Lonzo Ball shoes
for the absurd price of five hundred dollars a pair...
Before Lonzo Ball would get traded to the New Orleans Pelican's along with Brandon Ingram,
Josh Hart...
Before Lonzo would make appearances on TV shows like 'Fuller House', 'Dropping Cash:
LA' and release an album in 2018 appropriately titled 'Born 2 Ball'.
Lonzo Ball is actually pretty serious about his rapping.
The dude has put out a handful of music videos a lot of them with millions of views on YouTube.
He's also admitted himself that his celebrity look a like is Drake.
I seen some MEME's online that he's Drake + Screech = Lonzo which might be more accurate
but to be fair the kids got bars.
He's also got millions of bucks in the bank, a globally recognized brand in his family
name and a young family with him and his high school girlfriend Denise Garcia having welcomed
a baby girl named Zoey.
At just 21 years old Lonzo Ball has got a lot going for him except the family plan to
have all three of the Ball brothers playing together on the Lakers.
Next season he'll find himself in New Orleans and with the team having won the draft lottery
they might be a team of young champions – were gonna have to wait and see on how that plays
out but for now, let's take a look at his come up story.
What's going on guys?
My name is Michael McCrudden, updating the life and career of Lonzo Ball, prior to fame,
here for you on Before They Were Famous!
With the 2019 NBA championships behind us and the Draft just a day away we've been hitting
you with a ton of Basketball focused videos.
Yesterday we dropped a The Rich Life on the youngest Ball brother Melo so be sure to check
that out after this one.
Keep your requests and comments coming in on who to do next
and I'll see you guys after the intro.
Let's get into this bio.
Lonzo Anderson Ball was born on October 27, 1997 in Anaheim, California, the eldest of
three boys born to Tina and Lavar Ball.
Both of Lonzo's parents are former basketball players themselves, which according to to
his father was no accident.
Their mother Tina worked as a athletic director for a local middle school while Lavar was
a personal trainer.
The man apparently also had some kind of side hustle where he trained some pigeons.
Lavar Ball never ceases to amaze me, he's said so many outlandish things over the years
but this is still my favorite Lavar moment.
Here is what he had to say when asked who would win on a one on one between him and
Michael Jordan.
Having three boys born so close together Lavar felt he had won the lottery twice, he just
needed to cash his tickets.
He got to work training his boys right away, by eigth months they were all walking and
by 10 months he had them potty trained.
Speaking on this Lavar explained:
“I put a scarf under their arms and I just hold them up like a bungee cord so they get
their balance,” he says.
“Nobody had Pampers on.
I’d wake their [butt] up in the middle of the night, put them on the toilet.”
“Their cold [butt] hit that seat, so it was like a mechanism.
Cold [butt], piss.
Now go back to sleep.”
By two years old he had Lonzo out in the backyard learning to play basketball at the age of
two and the other brothers were quick to follow suit.
So, LaVar had Lonzo and his brothers, LiAngelo and LeMelo, got to work training to be NBA
stars and practiced day and night.
His youngest brother, LeMelo was even forced to start the first grade a year early so that
all three boys would one day be able to play on the same high school team.
As a kids, all three boys played on teams coached by their father, and Lonzo and his
brothers trained by playing against much older boys sometimes seven years their senior.
Lavar watched in amazement as his boys grew into superstars.
Growing up, basketball seemed to be everything for Lonzo and his brothers.
When he wasn't playing the game, he was collecting cards, or watching games.
Some of his favourite players were Lebron, Kobe, T-Mac, and Iverson.
The boys also weren't allowed to collect trophies, as LaVar wanted winning to be its own reward.
For High School, Lonzo attended Chino Hills High School in Chino Hills, California.
During his junior year in 2014-15, he scored 25 points, 11 rebounds, 9.1 assists, and 5
blocks on an average and he signed a ‘National Letter of Intent’ to attend the prestigious
‘University of California,’ Los Angeles (UCLA) and play for ‘UCLA Bruins' somewhere
Lavar planned to have all his boys play.
Throughout his high school career, Lonzo received a number of awards, including Max Preps Freshman
All-America honorable mention, CalHi Sports Freshman All-State Team, and All-Sierra League
first team honors.
He was also named to the 2013-14 USA Basketball Men's Developmental National Team.
He was named the Naismith Prep Player of the year, the Morgan Wooten National Player of
the Year, Mr. Basketball USA, and USA Today Basketball Player of the Year.
Off the courst he was a strong student, boasting a perfect 4.0 GPA.
It was at Chino hills he also met his girlfriend Denise Garcia who also specialized in athletics
playing soccer.
As planned, all three of the Ball brothers played on Chino Hills together during Melo's
junior year.
Together the three Ball bros led their school to a 35 and 0 record and a state title, with
the Huskies ranked the consensus number one team in the nation.
That year, he averaged 23.9 points, 11.3 rebounds and 11.7 assists per game.
Coming out of high school, Lonzo was rated a consensus five star recruit, and opted to
attend UCLA and play for the Bruins.
In interviews, Lonzo has talked about how he values being a good passer over being high
scorer.
Sure enough, during his year with the Bruins, he led the nation in assists, helping to make
his team the top-scoring offence in the country.
That year, he averaged 14.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 7.6 assists per game.
Zo was named the MVP of the Wooden Legacy tournament after his win against Texas A&M
in the championship game.
Regardless, after the game, he announced his intention to declare for the 2017 NBA draft.
In the lead up to the draft, Lonzo's dad became famous for his smack talk and over the top
praise for his son, who he said he believes is better than Steph Curry.
Lavar wants his son to go to the Lakers, but leading up to the draft there's been a lot
of speculation that they would pass on him.
He was generally projected to be a top-3 pick, which meant his future would be with the Philadelphia
76ers, the LA Lakers, or the Boston Celtics, of course we all know now what happened.
During Lonzo's time with the Lakers things were looking good.
His performance in the ‘2017 NBA Summer League Tournament’ went far beyond everybody’s
expectations.
Ball scored on an average of 16.3 points, 9.3 assists, 7.7 rebounds, 2.5 steals, and
1.0 blocks in each game, along with two triple-doubles.
But then in his Rookie season Lonzo missed 30 games due to shoulder and knee injuries.
There were some notable highlights including his career high with overall 29 points in
a winning game against the Phoenix Suns.
Lonzo also became the youngest player ever to get 10 assists in a single game and became
the youngest player to achieve a triple-double feat.
He nearly broke a Record for most rebounds by an NBA Rookie.. still there were the nay
sayers.
There were also the perks of their financial gain his NBA contract plus the sales off his
own sneaker line, the Big Baller Brand merch and their own Reality Television show made
the Ball's one very rich Basketball family.
I've gone into more depth about this in Lonzo's The Rich Life video.
In Lonzo's second season with the Lakers they would sign the one and only...
Lonzo recovered from knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus and on the court he switched
to more defensive play and had some of the best game time of his career.
But ankle injuries would have him seeing more and more bench time in the later parts of
the season and as the old saying goes, it's LeBron's World and we are just living in it!
In a shocking announcement Lonzo was traded along with Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three
first-round picks, including the No. 4 overall pick in the 2019 draft to the New Orleans
Pelicans in exchange for Anthony Davis.
As you can imagine, Lavar isn't impressed
This could still be good news for Lonzo with a line up fresh young talent and the potential
of Zion Williamson with the number 1 Draft pick it could make New Orleans a potential
Championship contender.
As for the rest of the story, well, we'll have to wait and see.
This is before they were famous.
My names michael mccrudden.
Thanks for watching.
Ive done a bio on LaVar Ball, so you might want to check that out.
But let me know who you want me to document next in the comments down below.