It’s been a tumultuous few days for Big Baller Brand to say the least.
Just in the past week, the Ball family has fired Big Baller Brand co-founder Alan Foster for allegedly embezzling $1.5 million, likely lost both Lonzo Ball and LaMelo Ball to Nike and saw Lonzo cover up his BBB tattoo with some unfortunate-looking dice.
All this unfolded just days ahead of the Big Baller Brand All-American Game scheduled for Sunday at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. LaVar announced the game last month as other All-Star games passed on the five-star LaMelo due to his eligibility concerns. With LaMelo’s apparent exit from Big Baller Brand and legal hurdles approaching the company, there was speculation on whether Sunday’s game would even happen.
According to event publicist Alexis Robinson of Diamond Marketing and Public Relations, the game will go on as scheduled with every player — including LaMelo — committed to participated.
“All the players are confirmed,” Robinson told For The Win. “Their flights are out. The family is here. LaMelo is supposed to tweet something out within the next couple days because — they just don’t want to tweet anything off of (the Big Baller Brand account) until they figure all this legal stuff out with Alan (Foster) obviously having partial ownership.
“Everything is still intact. Everything is confirmed. LaVar is actually going on local radio here three times tomorrow to talk about it. It’s all happening.”
LaMelo was announced as the headliner for the event back in February, and the game got SPIRE teammate and Michigan State commit Rocket Watts to join along with other top-100 prospects.
Robinson added that she had not communicated with Foster in the planning of the event. Vice President of Corporate Communications for Boyd Gaming David Strow also confirmed to For The Win that the recent Big Baller Brand news had not affected the company’s plans to host the game at Orleans Arena.
As of Wednesday, ticket sales were sparse with seats going between $22.94 and $91.74 before fees.
Beyond Sunday’s game, the future of Big Baller Brand remains murky.
According to ESPN, the family considered folding the company over the weekend but evidently put those plans on hold.
At the very least, Sunday’s game could be the final time Big Baller Brand has an official presence in a basketball event.
