LaMelo Ball won’t be following in the footsteps of his older brothers, Lonzo and LiAngelo, in completing his prep career at Chino Hills High School. The five-star 2019 prospect has been removed from the program in favor of home schooling by his father, LaVar Ball, and that presents quite a few interesting questions, or even challenges, for LaMelo’s future.
Before any of that arrives, though, there has been plenty of speculation as to LaVar’s motivation for executing this significant decision for his young son’s future. The elder Ball went on the record with ESPN to declare that the reasoning stemmed from disagreements with Chino Hills head coach Dennis Latimore and, on Tuesday, even more context arrived.
Eric Sondheimer of The Los Angeles Times brings word from Wayne Joseph, the superintendent that overseas Chino Hills, and the educator indicates that LaVar has attempted to meddle in the high school program. The report says that LaVar “suggested (Latimore) put four or five kids on varsity” and, while there is no information as to where the new infusion of talent would be coming from, it is easy to see why a head coach wouldn’t like a parent weighing in this strongly.
Joseph did commend LaVar Ball in saying that “he and his wife have done a magnificent job with their kids” but that doesn’t remove the weirdness that accompanies this story. LaMelo Ball’s basketball career can certainly progress without playing at Chino Hills but the saga won’t earn LaVar any new believers and this is direct commentary on just how involved he wanted to be before pulling LaMelo out of his high school.
