Kid Kardashian — how American teen LaMelo Ball is changing the face of Australian basketball
The Illawarra Hawks’ gamble on teenage whiz-kid LaMelo Ball — basketball’s Kid Kardashian — is paying huge dividends, but his influence goes way beyond his contribution to his club, writes Matt Logue.
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A casual lunchtime meeting in Las Vegas convinced the Illawarra Hawks to take a punt on basketball’s Kid Kardashian and sign up LaMelo Ball to NSW’s South Coast.
Half a dozen rounds into the season and the American 18-year-old’s striking performances for Illawarra have already attracted record crowds and viewership numbers for the NBL.
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Ball has quickly become the driving force in establishing the Australian league as a legitimate breeding ground for the NBA, given the American teen is in contention to be the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft.
But it was a different story in June when no one wanted to touch Ball, who grew up in front of cameras on his family’s own TV reality show.
“When I initially got asked about LaMelo, I said, ‘hell no’,” Illawarra owner Simon Stratford told The Sunday Telegraph.
“I was like, ‘I’ve done my research on this kid and there is no way I want him a part of this club because I thought he’d bring unwanted attention.”
Stratford, though, has always been a big believer in giving everyone a chance — he likes to meet every player and staff member he hires before they join the club — so he flew 17 hours to Vegas to link up with Ball in the foyer of the lavish Encore at Wynn Hotel.
As the 17-year-old Ball sipped from a bottle of water, Stratford, Illawarra coach Matt Flinn and general manager Mat Campbell set aside one hour to sit down with him and his personal minder Jermaine Jackson — a former NBA guard — to discuss their expectations, plans and dreams for the teen star.
The Hawks made their intentions for Ball clear from the onset.
“LaMelo’s goal was to become No. 1 in the NBA draft, so we wanted to help him but there would be no preferential treatment,” Stratford said.
“I wanted him to buy in to the team mentality. He isn’t just an individual and it isn’t only about him.
“We haven’t employed him to go, ‘This is the LaMelo Ball show’.
“You are going to be expected to work and train hard. There will be no doing your own thing and showing up late.
“LaMelo was awesome and from our meeting he changed my mind. He proved to me he was someone that I wanted around the club.”
A week later Ball agreed to terms with Illawarra — knocking back several European clubs to join the Wollongong-based franchise.
CHANGING PERCEPTIONS
Stratford wasn’t the only one with concerns about Ball.
The basketball world was also reluctant to build a professional relationship with the budding baller due to the sideshow circus that proceeding him.
ESPN Draft analyst Jonathan Givony has followed Ball’s journey closely from the junior ranks in America right through to his first professional stint with BC Prienai in Lithuania as a 16-year-old.
“LaMelo’s stop at Lithuania was not a positive experience for either him or his club,” Givony explains.
“His dad was there front and centre and there was a lot of noise. His team almost got relegated.”
Ball’s troubled time in Lithuania sparked a range of perceptions about him and his family, which have stuck, according to Givony.
“There are preconceived notions that people have about the type of player and person that he is,” he says.
“There are the highlights of him cherrypicking on defence, not getting back and taking bad shots from 40-feet early in possessions.
“That is definitely who he was early on in his career and that isn’t something that he can hide.
“But to his credit he has done a really good job of discrediting a lot of those preconceived notions at Illawarra.
“Being in a stable situation and helping the team win games is going to go a long way to changing that perception.”
GROWING PAINS
Ball hasn’t had a normal upbringing.
There has been the pressure of following in his older brother Lonzo’s NBA footsteps, his father’s outspoken expectation and the bright lights of his family’s reality TV show — Ball in the Family — which documents the personal and professional lives of LaMelo, his two brothers and parents, much like Hollywood’s Kardashians.
“And there are times when you can see that in LaMelo,” Stratford says.
“He didn’t go to his high school prom and other events because he was just told to focus on basketball.
“At times when we do things socially, LaMelo will just want to go home.”
BALL’S SCHNITZEL CRAVING
Stratford says Ball has started to come out of his shell in recent weeks.
He was initially daunted by being mobbed in public, now he relishes the chance to rub shoulders with the ’Gong locals.
Ball used to head home after games, but Stratford says this has changed.
“Now he goes straight to the Steelers Club with me and we have a chicken schnitzel and lemons,” he grins. “That is all he eats. I mean, he ate the place out of lemons at one stage.
“He’ll have four or five lemons with his chicken schnitzel – it’s insane.
“After the recent Perth game, he ordered two plates with four double-breasted schnitzels and eight lemons cut into wedges.
“He ate the lot. I was like, ‘wow, you are a typical 18-year-old boy’.”
Stratford’s 18-year-old son Jack loves basketball, music and online games, and hanging out at popular Wollongong takeaway shop, Chicko’s.
“And LaMelo is the same,” he says. “He is a typical 18-year-old kid who also hangs out at the chicken shop, but he has been forced to grow up from a young age.
“He is a kid and I think a lot of people forget that.
“They think he is this 25-year-old superstar. Don’t get me wrong, he is gifted and he is going to be a force to be reckoned with, but he is still young and learning.”
FINDING HIS FEET
Stratford believes living on the opposite side of the world without his father, LaVar, has been the key to Ball’s growth.
“I think it is a big step for both of them — father and son,” he says.
“I’d certainly be worried letting my son go to the other side of the world, but I think it was needed for them both.
“I think LaVar is a better person for just letting LaMelo do his thing.
“He has been forced to grow up in this six-month period that he is in the NBL.”
Stratford could see a father’s genuine love for his son when he picked Ball up from Sydney airport when he arrived in the country in June.
“LaVar was so thankful that I did that for LaMelo,” he said.
“He said not many owners do that for their players but that is what I do for all my players.
“LaVar is a great bloke. He is like a Dragon — I think there is a lot of huff and puff and wind, but he is a nice guy.
In a short period of time, Stratford has seen Ball develop from a shy introvert to a comfortable larrikin around the team.
But he says there has been one constant with the most hyped teenager in NBL history.
“LaMelo shakes everyone’s hands when he arrives at training and when he leaves — I’ve never seen that from an import before,” he says.
“That might be family value that he picked up from his dad. When you throw up that perception, like I did, it paints a totally different picture.
“LaMelo is a good kid — he is better than we first thought he would be, especially when you hear the initial reports out of the Ball family.
“He is polite, and he has a real level head.”
AUSSIE CULTURE
Ball has proven his worth in the NBL thus far, although he has struggled with elements of the Australian culture.
He doesn’t surf because he fears Sharks while he and his minder have had some sleepless nights in their CBD Wollongong unit, according to Stratford.
“They think there are koalas and kangaroos that are going to come out at night and bash them,” he said. “It’s so funny.”
Ball has only played nine games for Illawarra but he is already leaving a legacy.
The club’s professionalism has improved while he is helping the Hawks search for the next schoolboy star to use the NBL as a launch pad to No. 1 status in the NBA draft.
Stratford couldn’t be prouder.
“I get chills seeing LaMelo develop as a player and person,” he says.
“He has certainly changed my perceptions.”
MORE NEWS
Aussie push: Why LaMelo is No. 1 bound
Sunshine stoush: Machado’s leadership critical to Taipans
ON THE BALL: THE BIG NUMBERS
VIEWERSHIP
For broadcasts and streams, total viewership for Melo’s games is 4.4 million — more than half of the NBL total viewership and a 490 per cent increase on the Hawks’ views through six rounds last season.
The NZ v Illawarra game had two million views on Facebook in the US — the most watched game in NBL history.
Sunday’s Kings v Hawks game will be another big audience on Facebook as it’s a 3pm game — Saturday 9pm on the west coast of the US.
ATTENDANCE
NBL crowds are up by 14 per cent while away games to see Ball play have risen by a whopping 26 per cent — amazing when you consider the hype around Andrew Bogut’s first season at the Sydney Kings last year.
SOCIALS
The NBL’s total Instagram following has nearly doubled to 145,000 followers and has gone past the A-League’s.
The Illawarra Hawks’ Instagram following has increased by 60,000 since LaMelo signed, a 669 per cent increase.
Originally published as Kid Kardashian — how American teen LaMelo Ball is changing the face of Australian basketball