Source - If you are one of the several people who have been clamoring for the Ball family to just go away, you (sort of) got your wish.
LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball are heading to Lithuania, after signing one-year deals to play professionally for the Lithuanian club Prienu Vytautas on Monday, according to multiple reports.
LaMelo, 16, and LiAngelo, 19, will now have the opportunity to play competitive basketball at the professional level after previously dropping out of their respective schools.
The boys' father LaVar Ball recently pulled LiAngelo out of UCLA due to frustrations stemming from the freshman’s indefinite suspension as a result of his shoplifting arrest in China. The loud-mouthed basketball dad previously pulled LaMelo out of Chino Hills High School in August in order to home school him and better prepare him for the 2020 NBA Draft.
One second you're living close to home in Los Angeles, getting ready to suit up for the legendary UCLA Bruins, the next you're on a plane to Lithuania to suit up and play professional ball in a stadium that can hold a whopping 1,500 people.
The Ball’s to Lithuania is a disaster waiting to happen (I played there for a year and hated it). This is a picture of the teams gym that the Ball brothers would play at. Not exactly BIG BALLER material #BBB pic.twitter.com/STkQ57YRS5
— Ben Brust (@BenBrust) December 11, 2017
Even LaMelo has to hate this, he's been playing in high school games too big for this arena for the past two years with more of that slated for this season. And now he is relegated to a gym that's smaller than most high schools in America, in a country where the warmest it ever gets is about 60-65 degrees in the summer time, to spend the next 2-3 years preparing for the NBA draft that he may or may not be good enough to get selected in. And no offense to the Lithuanians, but LiAngelo was set to play a schedule against premiere West Coast talent, and that talent is far supreme to even the best Lithuanian basketball league.
Speaking of LiAngelo, you gotta think that kid's kicking himself right about now. I mean does this even happen if he didn't steal some sunglasses in China? He would probably still be at UCLA, currently getting bench minutes for the Bruins. Sure, he wouldn't be a superstar but at least he would get to hang out with his buddies, chase after California girls, get some trickle down perks from his brother the rookie point guard of the local NBA team. That was easy development.
Unfortunately he did steal those sunglasses, among other things from what I've read. And now he's getting shipped to eastern Europe, just a hop skip and a jump (or two for LiAngelo) from Moscow, Mother Russia and some the warmest people on earth. House arrest in China probably looks pretty good right about now.
On the plus side, Lithuanian sausage truly is delicious so there is that small victory. And now that they play in the Lithuanian league pretty much every victory is a small one so they better get used to 'em.
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