In what has become a common occurrence in his singular season in Australia and with the National Basketball League (NBL), LaMelo Ball helped break yet another record on Sunday afternoon. In the most highly-anticipated match-up of the year, Ball and Illawarra squared off with the Sydney Kings at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney and set the league’s all-time attendance record on the night.
In total, 17,514 fans attended the contest that saw the Kings survive a valiant fight from the Hawks to hang on for the win. The attendance mark was nearly 400 higher than the previous record.
Ball has already been apart of the most-viewed game in league history earlier in the season in the showdown with New Zealand Breakers and fellow Next Star RJ Hampton. Sunday’s contest matched Ball up with the other Next Star in Didi Louzada, a player drafted by the Pelicans in the 2019 NBA Draft before being stashed in Australia for at least a season.
The contest lived up to the hype on the day as Illawarra, the bottom seed in the NBL table, not only battled Sydney tight but held a second-half lead and were tied in the fourth quarter with the best team in the league. The Kings, though, eventually fended off feisty Illawarra for the win.
