What's up, everyone? Welcome back to Big Time Hoops
Today we're going to be talking about one of the most promising players: LaMelo Ball.
LaMelo Ball, best known for being a Hornet and part of the Ball Family,
was born on August 22, 2001. The point guard was highly recruited
at a young age and verbally committed to play at UCLA when he was just 13 years old.
He was the third Ball brother to commit to UCLA, following his older brothers LiAngelo and Lonzo.
LaMelo Ball's father’s name is LaVar Ball and his mother is Tina Ball. We will continue to
update you on details of LaMelo’s family. His most crazy moments are very recent.
So without going any further, welcome to “Things you probably didn't know about LaMelo Ball.”
Shoe Deal LaMelo already has a shoe deal locked and loaded.
This was already a surprise considering his family owns the Big Baller Brand and their line of shoes.
Still, LaMelo wanted to go somewhere more official and inked a pretty serious deal with Puma.
Puma has been growing exponentially as of late and they didn’t want to miss out on an
opportunity to land the future face of the league. They gave him a $100 million deal with an
unknown number of years at the moment, but it does set him up nicely for the future.
Draft Did you know that
LaMelo fell to the hornets at number 3 because of his father LaVar?. To make a long story short,
LaVar called out Michael Jordan. Yes, Jordan is widely considered the
greatest basketball player of all time and the owner of the Charlotte Hornets. LaVar said that
he could beat Jordan in a game of basketball one on one, going even further later on and saying
that he could do it with one arm tied behind his back. We feel the other teams didn’t want to deal
with LaVar’s drama. That didn’t discourage Jordan and the rest of the Hornets staff as they still
felt that LaMelo was worthy of a top selection. Andrew Bogut
LaMelo made a former NBA Champion become a big fan of his during his time in the Australian League.
Ball went up against Andrew Bogut, a center that was able to win a championship with
the Golden State Warriors during the 2014 NBA season with Klay Thompson and Steph Curry.
Now retired, he played in the Australian league as a member of the Sydney Kings, where he matched
up with LaMelo. Bogut was so impressed after competing against LaMelo that he compared him
to two Hall of Fame players. College
It was reported that LaMelo Ball somehow verbally committed to play for UCLA at the age of 13!
The kid wasn’t even in high school yet and was already committed to one of the best
colleges around for basketball. They weren’t the only school to
make a push for him as both Virginia and Washington State did everything that they
could to land the five-star recruit before he chose to play in Lithuania and Australia.
Still, he believed that UCLA was his dream school and didn’t want to go anywhere else if
he went to the traditional college route. There were a lot of questions regarding his college
eligibility though at the time. Triple Double
LaMelo became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double.
He was able to do so at the age of 19 years and 140 days, narrowly beating the record that was
held by Markelle Fultz. He dropped 22 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in the game. Josh Giddy of
the Thunder just recently broke that record. But now that we are on the topic of broken
records, LaMelo and Lonzo became the first brothers to both be drafted in the top
five. Lonzo was famously selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the number two overall
pick in 2017 and then Lamelo was drafted number two overall as well to the Charlotte Hornets.
We have even gotten to see LiAngelo get some NBA action in the summer league as a member
of the Hornets squad. Maybe we could finally see all three Ball brothers in the league,
joining the Antetokounmpos and the Holidays. Australia
LaMelo also played for the Australian-based National Basketball League. Mind you,
he did all of this during the years that he should have been a high schooler and college student.
He signed a two-year deal with the Illawarra Hawks and was able to get
the contract through the Next Stars program. The whole purpose of the program is to develop
future NBA Draft prospects, which LaMelo was at this time. He was coming off the bench towards
the beginning of the season but later blossomed after becoming the starting point guard but
suffered a serious injury that would keep him out for the entire season.
Ball then got injured a couple of weeks later and opted to sit out the rest of the year.
Still, he was able to win the NBL Rookie of the Year award by a small margin before leaving after
one season to throw his name into the NBA Draft. Chino Hills
LaMelo Ball used to play for Chino Hills alongside his two brothers but ended up
leaving shortly after they left. Instead of sticking around and trying to keep Chino
Hills in contention for another season, he had a bit of an issue with his head coach.
That issue ended up causing him to transfer not to another school in the United States,
rather to a team over in Lithuania at just 16 years old. He spent some time with Vytautas
Prienai and had multiple great games, even had some NBA scouts take the trip over there just to
see how good this young kid was. Competition
LaMelo grew up playing older competition. He first started playing basketball at the incredibly young
age of four. But it must have been easier to learn when he had both two older brothers and his
father to show him the ways at an early age. This is why he was able to perform at such a
high level despite playing in competition above his age range. Even nowadays, you can tell that
he plays the game of basketball like a veteran despite only being in the NBA for a few seasons.
He became an All-Star this year. Junior Basketball Association
LaMelo played for his family's league, the Junior Basketball Association. LaVar is the creator of
this league, and he did it so that it could be an alternative to college basketball. LaMelo was the
biggest name in the league, and he debuted for the Los Angeles Ballers in his first year.
He put up a 40-point triple-double early on in the season, though shot the ball 40 times and
only made 15 of those. The rest of the year pretty much went the same way, with LaMelo
receiving the majority of the shots on offense. He did lead the Baller to a JBA Championship
victory over the Seattle Ballers. Later on, he was named to the JBA USA, an international team
that faced off against a couple of European teams on an international tour of sorts.
Lithuania Speaking of the Lithuanian
Basketball League, LaMelo left it because his father had issues with their head coach. So, yet
again there were head coaching issues that caused Ball to get up and take his talents elsewhere.
The issue this time around was that LaVar felt like LaMelo wasn’t getting
enough playing time with his new squad. After all, the up-and-coming star was only picking
up around 12 minutes per contest, which simply isn’t enough considering the amount
of recognition their team was getting just from having him on the roster.
Seems like LaMelo has had a full career already before his NBA one. Playing in different leagues
and dealing with the media in his teens is an adjustment. But he has handled everything
well and this dude is just getting started. Thanks for watching this video until the end!
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