LaVar Ball plans to start his own Big Baller Brand basketball league to allow nationally ranked high school graduates who don’t want to go to college to get paid $3,000 to $10,000 a month to play basketball.
According to USA Today, Ball plans to fund his Junior Basketball Association fully with his Big Baller Brand, which launched in 2016 to sell clothing and shoes after Ball could not reach a deal with any major shoe companies for son Lonzo.
Players would wear Big Baller uniforms and shoes, and scouts would be invited to come to see players show their stuff, ESPN reported.
Ball is seeking 80 players for 10 teams, and says they will play in NBA stadiums by NBA rules rather than the NCAA rules college players are subject to.
“Getting these players is going to be easy,” Ball told ESPN. “This is giving guys a chance to get a jump start on their career, to be seen by pro scouts, and we’re going to pay them because someone has to pay these kids.”
Ball recently pulled his two younger sons, LaMelo and LiAngelo, out of high school and UCLA respectively and had them sign contracts with a professional team in Lithuania. Lonzo Ball is a rookie with the Los Angeles Lakers.
For the Win columnist Chris Korman said he thinks Ball's Big Baller Brand league is a good idea because many of the best players don’t want to go to college after they graduate and would rather get paid to play if they can be seen by scouts who may want to recruit them to the NBA.
Twitter users had mixed reactions to Ball’s plan.
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