Instead, the Lakers selected Svi Mykhailiuk with the 47th overall pick, and the Suns wrapped up their draft by adding George King with the 59th pick.
On the night of the draft, Ball was watching his brother LaMelo compete in the Junior Basketball Association, the league founded by LaVar Ball and Big Baller Brand. After the Lakers selected Mykhailiuk, Ball left his courtside seat to follow the draft on television and saw King come off the board to Phoenix.
Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman left Ball off his final big board, which ranked the top 50 players in the 2018 draft class.
The 19-year-old joined the UCLA Bruins prior to the start of the 2017-18 season. Before appearing in a regular-season game, he was arrested in China last November on allegations of shoplifting. Ball and two others were suspended indefinitely upon returning home, and he left UCLA altogether in December.
Ball signed with Lithuanian team BC Vytautas, averaging 12.6 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 14 Lithuanian league games.
Prior to the draft, he worked out with the Lakers and Golden State Warriors and had interviews with the Suns and Oklahoma City Thunder.
After going undrafted, Ball failed to land with a team in time for the NBA Summer League team. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported in June the Lakers opted against bringing him in, with a source saying “obviously there’s more to it than basketball.”
Shelburne read that comment to mean “the LaVar effect was real.”
Courtesy: Bleacher Report
