The middle Ball brother, LiAngelo, makes an NBA G-League roster
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The middle Ball brother, LiAngelo, or the third Ball brother as some people refer to him as, has done the unthinkable and made an NBA G-League roster.
Ball has overcome quite a lot to get to this point. He was always looked at in the Ball family as the third son who was not good enough to make it to the NBA. His older brother, Lonzo, was always destined for the NBA as he was talked about as a top 10 NBA pick before his one year at UCLA. Even his little brother, LaMelo, was highly rated by high school basketball recruiting websites and there was no doubt he was destined for the NBA in high school. For LiAngelo though, he was never highly ranked in high school but still went to UCLA just like his brother Lonzo.
LaVar Ball, the outspoken father of the Ball boys, claimed, “All my boys are gonna be one-and-done.” However, after just one exhibition game, LiAngelo was caught shoplifting in China with his UCLA teammates and did time in jail. He was then suspended indefinitely by UCLA and ultimately decided to move on from UCLA completely. It seems LiAngelo was technically one-and-done but not in the way LaVar had hoped for. This was a huge blow to the beginning of LiAngelo’s basketball career after high school.
LiAngelo was not expected to be drafted in the 2018 NBA Draft after dropping out of UCLA and decided to play professionally in Lithuania in a lower-level league. A tweet from the most respected NBA Analyst Adrian Wojnarowski read, “Ex-UCLA freshman LiAngelo Ball has no chance that he’ll be drafted in June — and that was true before his shoplifting incident in China. ‘He’s not on any of our scouting lists — even the extended lists,’ one GM told ESPN.”
Ex-UCLA freshman LiAngelo Ball has no chance that he'll be drafted in June — and that was true before his shoplifting incident in China. "He's not on any of our scouting lists — even the extended lists," one GM told ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 4, 2017
He did well in Lithuania but still was not good enough to be picked in the draft apparently. After not being selected he played in the JBA league, a league that was created for just one season by LaVar Ball where LiAngelo won the MVP and the championship. LiAngelo then endured a serious ankle injury in July 2019 but after his recovery signed with the Oklahoma City Blue of the NBA G-League right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He never was able to play a game before their season was canceled.
The following year, LiAngelo signed a training camp deal with an NBA team, the Detroit Pistons, but was waived before even seeing minutes in a preseason game. This kid had been through a lot by then but was still only 22.
In the summer of 2021, LiAngelo got an invite to play with the Charlotte Hornets Summer League team where his brother LaMelo plays.
“LiAngelo did a good job in Summer League, I can say that,” Hornets coach James Borrego said after Summer League. “As a basketball coach, I think he did a heck of a job in the time we had him there.”
He had one of the standout performances of Summer League in the Hornet’s head coaches eyes but still didn’t even get a training camp invite.
Now, in October 2021, LiAngelo finally got signed to the Greensboro Hornets, the Charlotte Hornets G-League Affiliate, where he will play for the 2021-22 season. It has been quite the road for LiAngelo to make a professional roster and now he is just one injury away from making the Charlotte Hornets NBA team.
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