LaMelo Ball will spend the next two seasons playing exclusively AAU basketball and training at home, rather than completing his junior and senior years of high school at Chino Hills. That’s because LaVar Ball, basketball dad extraordinaire, didn’t like the new coaching hire at Chino Hills and decided he’d pluck him out of high school to homeschool him.
There have been plenty of jokes about Big Baller Brand High, but from all accounts the Ball family already operates on a pretty rigid schedule, so it’s fair to assume school time won’t have a problem slotting in around workouts and drills. Ball has a singular goal of making it to the NBA and he’s now essentially doing trade school to try and improve his chances of joining his oldest brother in the league.
Where Lonzo is the slick passing point guard, LaMelo is best known for launching deep threes and just generally chucking. It’s not hard to point to the areas in which the youngest Ball needs to improve, namely on defense and in general athleticism. It seems as though the weight training and conditioning program LaVar has him on is starting to pay off, because the kid that not so long ago got rejected by the rim is now throwing down monster windmills, (video courtesy of the good people at Overtime).
If LaMelo can transform himself into an above-average athlete and combine that with his shooting range, he just might be able to accomplish his goal (and his father’s) of seeing him in the league alongside Lonzo. It will be very interesting to follow LaMelo’s progress over the next two years as he makes basketball his top priority, but from the looks of it his natural progression as an athlete is already coming along nicely.
