It’s been over a month since LaMelo Ball played in his final high school game and while an official announcement has yet to be made, LaMelo’s father LaVar Ball has said that his youngest son plans to play overseas.
Lavar’s comments came as a surprise to many because of how open LaMelo has been about his desire to play collegiate basketball. LaMelo had also expressed interest in playing in the NBA G League through their newly introduced Select Contract program, which offers elite high school prospects an alternative to college.
Naturally, LaMelo’s decision to pursue a contract overseas was a hot topic and the crew at Fox Sports 1’s “Speak For Yourself” tried to make sense of it. Former NBA Champion Stephen Jackson came to the conclusion that LaMelo avoided the G League because he couldn’t handle it:
“[Lavar] is definitely protecting his son. In the G League, there’s some hungry dogs in the G League that’s trying to get out of there, and they will embarrass him; they will challenge him. One thing I’ve noticed about him is that he’s a skilled offensively, but on defense he has no motor. He’s not one of those guys that go hard the whole time and the G League is not for a guy like that. You want your son overseas and make him look better. You can’t fault a dad for protecting his son.”
While that may be true, couldn’t the same be said of most, if not all, players with the ambition to play in the G League straight out of high school?
It’s also worth noting that LaMelo will see more experienced and physically mature men wherever he plays overseas unless he decides to play for a second-tier international team. If the latter is his plan, he might as well just take his chances playing in the G League instead of putting up gaudy numbers in a non-competitive league overseas.
It’s not too late for LaMelo to change his mind and with the amount of drama surrounding the family as of late, there’s a chance he will.
You can watch the full discussion below:
