The Ball family is back in the news.
After becoming the first high school basketball player to receive his own signature shoe this summer, LaMelo Ball won’t play organized basketball for Chino Hills this season.
LaVar Ball will instead take the 16-year-old junior and home-school him while training him at home. Ball told Eric Sondheimer of the Los Angeles Times that it was the best move for the five-star point guard and UCLA commit.
“It’s good for Melo,” LaVar told Sondheimer. “Less distractions. He just needs to focus.”
Although LaMelo won’t be playing high school basketball this season, it still appears as though he’ll be playing on the AAU circuit this spring and summer as LaVar would still be able to coach and control that situation.
“They’ll have to sit back and wait,” LaVar said to Sondheimer.
With the Balls basically becoming a Kardashian-like family in the sports and entertainment sphere, this is probably the right move for LaMelo at this point. Normal high school juniors don’t have reality shows, signature shoes and expensive sports cars, so this seems like a normal move for the Ball family at this point.
From a basketball standpoint, Sondheimer also reported that LaMelo still intends to sign with UCLA, but it is still unclear how the NCAA feels about the signature shoe and LaMelo’s association with the family-run Big Baller Brand.