LaMelo Ball had a very interesting year in Australia and now that he owns the team he played for, he is ready to move on and get drafted into the NBA this year. Many believe he could be the first overall pick while others are more conservative in predicting that he will at least be in the top five. There is a whole slew of bottom-feeding teams that will be eligible for Ball and it will be interesting to see where he ends up landing. 

As you can imagine, LaMelo’s father LaVar has his own plans for the future superstar and is letting it be known that he wants Melo to go to the New York Knicks. The Knicks might be a terrible team but they get all of the attention and as we know, LaVar loves himself some attention.

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LaVar had vouched for the Knicks a while back but he reiterated his position while on Complex’s “Load Management” podcast. The Knicks aren’t guaranteed to get a lottery pick but the odds of them getting one is still pretty high. If other teams see that LaMelo only has eyes for the Knicks, perhaps they will pass him up and New York can get lucky.

However, this all rides on whether or not the Knicks even want LaMelo and what comes with him. Needless to say, this situation is about to get interesting.

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Back on March 11th, the NBA was forced to shut down as one of its players contracted the Coronavirus. Since then, multiple players have been diagnosed positive with COVID-19 and the NBA is looking for ways to come back without putting the players at risk. New information surrounding the virus continues to come out every single day and sports fans are worried that the entire season could be canceled. Regardless, the NBA seems eager to find a solution, and today, the league announced the postponement of two more events.

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA is now postponing the NBA Draft Lottery and the NBA Draft combine. Both of these events were set to take place this month in Chicago but now, it is impossible for it to go down. 

Throughout this pandemic, numerous initiatives have been created to help people out while also going above and beyond the call of duty. One of the more recent trends we have seen is the All-In Challenge which sees people from around the world doing good deeds for a good cause. Now, the NBA is joining the fun with a charitable contest that will give one fan the chance to be called on stage during the 2021 NBA Entry Draft. Yes, that's right, if it was ever your dream to shake Adam Silver's hand after he calls your name, now is your chance.

Essentially, participants can buy 10 entries for $10, 20 entries for $20, 100 entries for $50, or $200 entries for $100. Your money will end up going to a good cause as 100% of the funds raised will go to Feeding America, Meals On Wheels, World Central Kitchen and No Kid Hungry.

LaMelo Ball is one of the biggest names heading into the NBA draft and many predict he could be taken within the first three picks. Instead of going the college route, Ball decided to play in Australia for the Illawarra Hawks of the NBL. While his season may have ended early due to an injury, he still fell in love with the league and the country he got to call home. According to ESPN, Ball, and his manager Jermaine Jackson have just finalized a deal to buy the team,

Yes, that’s right, LaMelo Ball owns his very own NBL team. As Jackson explains, they made the decision after being told that the Hawks had some financial issues. Ball wants to see the team thrive and plans to implement the best employees possible to create a program that makes the fans in the city proud.

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“Melo loves the Illawarra fans,” Jackson said. “He loves that community. They opened their arms to him. They made us feel like we are at home. When we started hearing about the issues they were going through, we talked about it and decided, ‘Let’s own the team.’ He is going to be locked into his NBA career, but we are going to hire the right people to oversee everything. He wants to create the best basketball program possible for that community there.”

This is a huge move considering Ball has yet to play a single game in the NBA. When you already own a team at such a young age, it’s proof that you have an entrepreneurial spirit and it will be interesting to see what he does with his newfound purchase.

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LaVar Ball has become a solidified member of the basketball world over the past few years thanks to his various antics. He is typically gassing up his kids to an absolute insufferable degree. I mean, who can forget when he said Lonzo would be a better point guard than Magic Johnson? Now, LaVar’s youngest son LaMelo is poised to go high in the NBA draft although, with everything that is going on with the Coronavirus, there is a chance teams won’t be able to vet him like they wanted to.

With this in mind, LaMelo could actually fall in the draft and it mostly has to do with his father. A GM in the Eastern Conference was speaking to Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report and noted that if his team was to draft LaMelo, they would need to have a conversation with him and his father first. Clearly, there are some questions that need to be answered first.

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“You’re still going to investigate all that, but I’d want to meet with the kid and the dad, personally,” the general managers said. “The dad is such a wild card.”

For now, it remains to be seen where LaMelo ends up going. With the Coronavirus pandemic picking up steam, there are a lot of variables at play leading up to the NBA draft and realistically, no one knows what’s going to happen.

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Nine years ago, Iman Shumpert stepped into the NBA scene as the 17th overall pick in the NBA draft. The then-20-year-old didn’t know what was in store for his career especially because that was the year the league shut down over the NBA lockout. While other draft picks were relishing in the good news that they were now professional basketball players, Iman told Coach PR for Vlad TV that nothing really changed because he “was still broke.”

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“They were like, ‘What’s the first thing you bought?’ Still broke,” Iman remembered. People would ask him if he took out a loan because he was “good for it,” but the free agent revealed that he had veteran players that were giving him financial advice. “I’ve been broke my whole life,” he said. “I can be broke ’til this [is] over… I was already broke. I’m straight. I’ll figure it out. I just worked out the whole time.”

Iman had people like Jaren Jackson, Tony Allen, and Will Bynum who kept in contact with him as soon as the lockout was in place to make sure he wasn’t making any rash decisions. “[They were] making sure I was straight like, ‘Don’t take no big loan, don’t tweet,'” Iman recalled. “They was all calling me like, ‘I don’t know what these little dumb draft picks are out here doing. Everybody posting cars. Don’t do that sh*t. Chill out.'”

Iman also said his mentors assisted in helping him get minor deals promoting events or products in order to make a bit of money on the side until the lockout was over. He said he survived college on a $12K Pell Grant, so after he made $40K from hosting or promoting, he knew he could live off of that as he watched other rookies take out $2 million loans before even bouncing a ball. Check out Iman Shumpert’s clip from Vlad TV below.

This season hasn’t been kind to the New York Knicks although I could write that pretty well any given year and it would still ring true. Regardless, the Knicks are currently 13th in the Eastern Conference and have one of the worst records in the entire league. As we approach the end of the season, it’s clear that the Knicks will most likely be a lottery pick. If this is the case, they will have an opportunity to get a top 5 pick who could change the fortunes of the franchise.

According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, the Knicks are currently looking to prioritize what kind of player they want. For now, a scoring point guard is on the top of their list. If you’ve been following NCAA and NBL basketball this year, you would know that LaMelo Ball fits that description almost to the T. 

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Ball averaged 17 points per game with the Illawarra Hawks of the NBL. He was also able to average 7.5 assists and 7 rebounds. At times, Ball came through with impressive triple-doubles and was a fan favorite in the league. While Ball isn’t mentioned by name, he is one of the top scoring point guards out there which means it would behoove the Knicks to make a serious play for him.

With this in mind, who do you think the Knicks should draft?

LaMelo Ball has been one of the most entertaining young prospects in basketball and some scouts are placing a ton of expectations on the young player. He is being projected to be a top-five pick in the 2020 NBA Draft with some pundits believing he could actually go number one. It remains to be seen whether or not teams will want to draft Ball so early, especially when you consider how active his father is in the careers of his children.

Ball has been playing quite well in the NBL this season although he recently missed 12 games because of a nagging foot injury. Ball has reportedly been out for six weeks which means he would need six weeks of rehab. The season will be over by then so Melo has opted to shut down his season and focus on the draft, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony.

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Based on Givony’s report, it appears as though LaMelo has fully recovered from his foot injury and will be ready to go by the start of the NBA season. This is great news for NBA teams who might be thinking about drafting the young phenom. This draft class will certainly have quite a few great players and we’re interested to see where they will all land.

Be sure to stay tuned for updates on Ball’s situation.