LaMelo Ball

LaMelo Ball was born on 22 August 2001 at Chino Hills, California. His father LaVar Ball was a professional basketball and soccer player. He played basketball for Washington State University through his youth in 1987-88 and later for California State University, LA. He also played soccer mostly as a quarterback for London Monarchs of WLAF, Carolina Panthers, and New York Jets. LaMelo's mother Tina Ball is an Athletic Director in a middle school in Montclair, CA. LaMelo has two elder brothers Lonzo and LiAngelo. Lonzo is currently playing for UCLA and LiAngelo is on the verge of finishing his schooling in Chino Hills High school. The Ball family has an NGO amateur club named Big Ballers AAU in Chino Hills, California to promote young basketball talents. The Ball family owns a sports apparel brand called Big Baller Brand.

LaMelo is currently plays for Chino Hills High School and is all set to play for UCLA in future. Extremely popular on the social media, he has 33K followers in Facebook, 30.4K followers in Twitter and 2 million followers in Instagram.

Born to parents with professional basketball background, LaMelo got his first coaching from his father LaVar Ball when he was just four years old. He was trained along with his two elder brothers Lonzo and LiAngelo. LaMelo played on behalf of several amateur clubs in his childhood at the behest of his father, as well as for the family’s own Big Ballers AAU. LaMelo studies in Chino Hills High School, CA and started playing basketball in full swing under Coach Steve Baik. He often played against boys much elder to him, yet he proved his mettle by scoring substantially on several occasions. He was selected for the school team and played against John Muir High School on 16 June 2015. He impressed his mentors and the crowd by scoring 27 points on his debut. In his next match on 27 June, he scored a consistent 20 points against Centennial High School. The same year in November, he scored another 20 points against San Bernardino High School.

Soon his talent started drawing attention from colleges and universities who wanted to recruit him in future. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) sought and clinched a verbal commitment from LaMelo to play for them in future. The Chino Hills team with LaMelo and his brothers was nicknamed Huskies by other teams because of their style of playing together in tandem. In March 2016, LaMelo spearheaded his team by scoring 26 points to clinch victory over Sierra Canyon School to win the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section Open Division championship. The same month, Chino Hills became the No.1 ranking team in US and eventually qualified for state championship. LaMelo scored 14 points to steer his team to victory in the final of the 2016 CIF State Boys Basketball Championship against De La Salle High School in a 70-50 finish. LaMelo was named the Freshman of the Year by MaxPreps.com and found his place in the coveted MaxPreps Boys' Basketball Freshman All American First Team.

By end of 2016, LaMelo was maintaining an average of 30 points per game. In December that year, his half-court score received a loud cheer from media houses nationwide. The next year in February, LaMelo scored a record 92 points to propel his team to another crushing victory over Los Osos High School. He dedicated his achievements in the game to his Chino Hills classmate Alexis Anderson who was critically awaiting a major heart transplant operation.

A recent controversy arose when LaMelo's father LaVar Ball declared that he wants his three sons to sign a business deal with one of the sports majors like Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour for a hefty $1 billion. He was criticized by many for being too ambitious and ridiculous.