Crystal Ball
LaVar looks into future and sees son, LaMela, on Knicks
LaVar Ball has said for a second time he would like his son, LaMelo Ball, to wind up a Knick.
On the “Load Management” podcast Wednesday, Ball also stated he is certain his youngest son will be considered for the No. 1-overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Some league sources believe the Ball camp will try to steer the 18-year-old point guard to the Knicks, though such a maneuver will be difficult if Leon Rose’s club doesn’t rise into the top four in the lottery.
The sixth-seeded Knicks have a 37.2 percent chance of moving up in a lottery that has been postponed from May 19 with no new date set yet.
During a recent appearance on FS1, the elder Ball said LaMelo would be perfect for the New York market.
“The best fit in my eyes is the New York Knicks,” LaVar said. “It’s time for something good to happen to them.”
Asked Wednesday if he still feels that way, LaVar, a former practice-squad tight end for the Jets, said, “I think so. The bright lights, East Coast. If everything lines up right, the Knicks get the first pick and get LaMelo and LiAngelo with him and somehow get Lonzo in the long run. Shoot — the Triple B’s. The Ball Brothers on Broadway.”
LiAngelo, LaVar’s middle son, is a free agent after going undrafted in 2018 and recently signed a G-League contract.
In an interesting maneuver, the Ball brothers left Creative Artists Agency in early March just as Rose departed for the Knicks’ presidency.
In late April, LaMelo signed on with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Raymond Brothers, a top agent who is known to be a longtime friend of Knicks GM Scott Perry.
The manager for LaMelo is now Jermaine Jackson, a Knicks shooting guard in 2004-05 who was Ball’s prep-school coach at Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio.
Steering LaMelo to the Knicks will be no easy chore, but it makes sense. The Knicks are one of the few teams sorely lacking a starting point guard and in need of a savior. Rose has been brought in to deliver star power.
Before the 2017 draft, LaVar lobbied for the Lakers to pick Lonzo with the No. 2 pick and reportedly refused to let other teams work him out.
“Oh, he’s going to be a Laker,” he said then. “I’m going to keep talking about it until it happens.”
And it happened. Just as it happened in the 2015 draft when Kristaps Porzingis refused to work out for woebegone Philadelphia, which selected third. The Sixers chose Jahlil Okafor instead and Porzingis dropped to the Knicks at No. 4.
“I think you could connect the dots,” one NBA source said about an attempt to get LaMelo to the Knicks.
LaVar proclaimed Wednesday the 6-foot-7 LaMelo will beat out Anthony Edwards and James Wiseman and be the No. 1 pick.
“Whoever is the most popular usually is going to go No. 1,” LaVar said on the podcast. “Zion [Williamson] was the most popular. That’s why he’s No. 1. RJ Barrett [taken at No. 3 by the Knicks] was pretty good, did better at Duke, but he wasn’t as popular as Zion. In LaMelo, you got the most popular and the best guard. Who’s not going to take him No. 1? … The youngest is always going to be the best.”
Some teams may be fearful of LaMelo because of his father’s outspoken nature, the point guard’s shaky outside shot and lack of defensive intensity in his brief foray in Australia (12 points, seven assists, six rebounds per game).