In signing Billy Preston, the Illawarra Hawks not only landed a player that was once a highly-touted prospect, but also one that is close to its star player. Preston grew up in Santa Ana, a town relatively close to Chino Hills.
In California, he played high school basketball in both Bellflower and Redondo Beach. Eventually, Preston would make a stop at a high school in Texas before landing at Oak Hill.
Despite moving away, Preston and the Ball family spent enough time together for Preston to consider the family part of his own. In a piece with the Illawarra Mercury, Preston talked about teaming up with LaMelo on the Hawks.
“I’ve known Melo since my seventh-eighth grade year, we go way back. He’s younger than me so he’s kind of like my little brother. I’ve been playing with him and his brothers basically our whole life. We played high school together, he went to Chino, I went to Oak Hill, we played each other once two years ago.”
In the one previous meeting, Preston and Oak Hill ended LaMelo, LiAngelo and Chino Hill’s 60-game win streak with a 96-91 win at the Nike Extravaganza at Santa Ana Mater Dei.
While Ball will be out for a month, Preston presents a different type of player than Ball has previously had as a teammate on the Hawks. In his time in the G League, a span of only 27 games, Preston shot 37.3 percent from beyond the arc. That alone is a positive for the Hawks, but Preston, who is listed at 6’10” and 230 pounds, also pulled down over seven rebounds a game during his brief time overseas.
