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LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball have signed with an agent, intend to play overseas

By Alex Wolfe

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 02: LaVar Ball holds courd during The Los Angeles Lakers game against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center on October 2, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 02: LaVar Ball holds courd during The Los Angeles Lakers game against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center on October 2, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images) /
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Everyone’s favorite basketball dad is looking for a team overseas to host both LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball.

Adding to the continuing media circus that is the Ball family, LaVar Ball has decided to sign not just his son LiAngelo Ball (who was recently removed from UCLA by LaVar) with an agent, but also his youngest son, 16-year-old LaMelo Ball.

ESPN’s Jeff Goodman had the scoop, and notes that LaVar is now working with agent Harrison Gaines to find a team overseas that will host both of his sons:

"“I don’t care about the money,” LaVar Ball said on Thursday morning. “I want them to go somewhere where they will play them together on the court at the same time. The priority is for the boys to play on the same team.”Ball said earlier this week that the plan was still for LaMelo, who withdrew from Chino Hills (California) High School early in his junior season, to play at UCLA in two years. However, the elder Ball told ESPN that won’t be the case.“He’s not going to play college basketball,” Ball said."

The move to sign with an agent confirms recent rumors that LaVar would attempt to find an overseas home for both of his youngest sons in an attempt to ready them for the NBA.

The idea of signing both the less-heralded LiAngelo and LaMelo could intrigue a team either in Europe or China, given that LaMelo is only high school age and is the 17th-ranked prospect in the U.S. in the 2019 Rivals 150.

While playing professional basketball at high school age seems preposterous in the United States, it actually isn’t all that uncommon overseas. For example, 2017 draftee Frank Ntilikina played professionally for three years before being drafted as a 19-year-old, and potential 2018 top pick Luka Doncic is in the midst of his fourth professional season at age 18.

Deciding to officially pull LaMelo from his UCLA scholarship will probably also save LaVar from what would have been a NCAA rules headache concerning LaMelo’s signature shoe line with Big Baller Brand.

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So, as he has in the past, LaVar is breaking what basketball fans in the United States consider to be conventional.

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