Dick Weiss on College Basketball
PHILADELPHIA–La Melo Ball has temporarily put his NBA dreams on hold. The youngest Ball brother, who left Chino Hills, Calif. High to play his junior year for a professional club in Lithuania last winter and averaged mover 40 points while dominating the startup Junior Basketball Association last summer, has announced he is returning to high school basketball after being accepted by Spire. Oh. Institute, an exclusive non-traditional prep school in Ohio.
Ball, a 6-6 senior guard, will enroll at Spire a school that boasts state-of-the-art facilities also used in training the U.S. Olympic team, and suit up Nov.13. If we are to believe the family, Melo was never paid during his time as a pro, so he never lost his eligibility.
Ball is eligible to play at Spire because it is a prep school that is not a part of the Ohio state high school federation. But it appears he gave up any chance to play college basketball after he dropped out of Chino Hills at the start of his junior year in the fall of 2017 and signed with an agent Harrison Gaines before going overseas. Ball has only three options open to him once he graduates– declaring for the NBA draft, entering the G-League or playing basketball overseas again.
Melo will be playing with 7-7 high school giant Robert Bobroczky and point guard/Michigan State recruit Rocket Watts at Spire. The school will test itself Dec. 3 when it plays Oak Hill Academy and its star point guard Cole Anthony. Ball’s new coach Jermaine Jackson is already claiming Ball could be the first pick in the 2020 NBA draft.
Melo built a cult following as a sophomore when he averaged 37.6 points and exploded for a 92-point game against hapless Los Osos High School in 2017. La Melo recorded 63 points in the second half alone and made 37 of 63 shots for the entire game. Melo was criticized for cherry picking, waiting near half court to get an open shot on his next possession instead of playing defense. Ball said he used the game to draw attention to Chino Hills student Alexis Anderson, who was diagnosed with a rare heart condition.
He is one of the most publicized players in high school history with over 3.9 million followers on Instagram and has a signature shoe with his father’s company Big Baller Brand and a role on the Facebook Watch reality show, Ball in the Family. In late July of 2017, Ball participated with his AAU team, Big Ballers Brand at the Adidas Summer Championships at Cashman Center in Las Vegas and starred in a highly hyped game against Zion Williamson and SC Supreme. Although Melo scored 31 points, SC Supreme won the game behind Williamson’s 28 points. According to Adidas, up to 4,000, including NBA players Andrew Wiggins and Damian Lillard, packed the gym. A live stream on BallisLife.com received 822,000 views.
