Friday, March 29, 2024

LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball Sign One-Year Deals with Lithuanian Pro Basketball League

[videowaywire video_id=”1G9B4Z16TNSVF163″]

LaMelo (L) and LiAngelo Ball
LaMelo (L) and LiAngelo Ball

*LaVar Ball’s two youngest sons are now professional basketball players after each signed one-year contracts with first-division Lithuanian league team Vytautas Prienai, sources told Yahoo Sports.

LaMelo, 16, and LiAngelo Ball, 19, agreed to deals with Vytautas that will allow them to start their careers in a competitive professional league with a history of churning out NBA players, including Toronto Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas, Boston Celtics center Aron Baynes, former New York Knicks forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Isaiah Hartenstein, who was a second-round pick to Houston in the 2017 draft.

The Ball brothers will report to the team in early January, reports Yahoo Sports.

“Our club is excited for the arrival of LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball,” Vytautas sports director Vilius Vaitkevicius said. “We are committed to their long-term success and development as professional basketball players.”

Vytautas Prienai won a championship last season and plays in competitive games in the Baltic and Lithuanian leagues, which includes teams that participate in EuroCup (Lietkabelis) and EuroLeague (Zalgiris).

Via Yahoo Sports:

LaMelo left Chino Hills High in California before his junior season this year to be home-schooled and is considered a legitimate pro prospect. The move to turn pro overseas is unprecedented for the consensus top-10 player in the class of 2019, who is skipping two years of high school and his commitment at UCLA. Luka Doncic — the potential No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA draft — turned pro in Europe early in his basketball life and has set a recent standard of development and ability to succeed against older competition in tougher leagues.

LiAngelo parted ways with UCLA last week to begin focusing on his training for professional basketball. LiAngelo and UCLA teammates Cody Riley and Jordan Hill were involved in a shoplifting incident in China in November and received indefinite suspensions.

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