NBA draft 2020:
The Ball Family Draft Night Extravaganza (heavy on the extra) began hours before the first pick, at a check-in table in the driveway of the family home in Chino Hills, California
The following written content by Tim Keown via ESPN.
The Ball Family Draft Night Extravaganza (heavy on the extra) began hours before the first pick, at a check-in table in the driveway of the family home in Chino Hills, California. Temperatures are taken, hand sanitizer is offered, waivers are signed, pens are separated in containers marked CLEAN and USED, and each signee holds the signed waiver near said signee’s face for a photograph, clearing the way for any and all likenesses to be used for the inevitable reality show spinoff. A young woman in a Big Baller Brand T-shirt bearing the slogan “Family Never Breaks Up” takes the photo with her phone, and we’re off.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the NBA draft, turning it into a virtual, stay-at-home affair that promised to be quaint, heartwarming and maybe a little bit folksy. Families gathered in small groups, awaiting news only the television could convey, and joy ensued. Each of the potential draftees got a cap in the mail from all 30 teams, and instead of daps and a hug with commissioner Adam Silver after a walk to the stage, they got a backslap from their overeager uncle and a kiss from Mom. But in the case of the Ball family, which is not just any family, the night could be transformed into one more massive marketing opportunity. LaMelo, at 19 the youngest of the three Ball brothers, was about to be drafted, and the moment would be maximized.
In fact, this moment — not any of the moments leading up to it, and not any of the moments that might ensue from it — is the moment the family has been awaiting ever since LaVar Ball decreed that each of his sons would become professional basketball players. Lonzo, chosen second overall by the Lakers in the 2017 draft, is the starting point guard for the New Orleans Pelicans. LiAngelo, the middle son, played for the Oklahoma City Thunder G League team last year and is hoping to sign as a free agent in the next two weeks. But this is the moment of ultimate vindication, the night the youngest and most scrutinized son of Tina and LaVar would be recognized for his talent and the work that has made this possible. This is the moment when everyone would stop talking about LaMelo’s winding path — from Chino Hills to Lithuania to an Ohio prep school to Australia, much of it in service of a brand and at the behest of the father — and focus on the result. Read more from ESPN
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