When Do Ball Bros Play Again in Lithuania
When he learned where LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball will be playing pro basketball this season, Ben Brust couldn't aid but chuckle.
The former Wisconsin guard isn't optimistic two pampered teenagers from lord's day-splashed Southern California will make a smooth transition to a club based in a remotely located, snowfall-covered town in Republic of lithuania.
"I think they'll concluding a month maximum," Brust said. "Information technology seems similar the worst possible identify they could have picked."
In October 2016, Brust signed with BC Pieno Zvaigždės of the Lithuanian League 6 months after helping lead Wisconsin to the Final Four and a few days afterwards the Milwaukee Bucks cut him during training campsite. The civilisation shock he experienced during his lone flavor in Lithuania left him more than homesick than he expected.
Hardly anyone in the 7,500-person village of Pasvalys spoke English language. Restaurants typically simply served traditional Lithuanian dishes unrecognizable to Brust. He and American teammates Michael Dixon Jr. and Alex Oriakhi had to drive 30 to 40 minutes to the nearest big city to find a mall, a grocery store or restaurants that offered American fare.
Only the premier teams in Europe can afford the charter flights and high-terminate hotels that major-conference American higher teams take for granted. Brust's team bused or ferried to games in Latvia, Estonia and Finland and saved money by staying in deal hotels.
"My American teammates and I would literally count down the days until we got back to America," Brust said. "It was always common cold and dark. There are only like five or 6 hours of sunlight every day, and yous're in a gym for one-half of it. It's a good basketball league, but at that place are plenty of other places in Europe that I would much prefer to live."
LiAngelo and LaMelo Brawl will face many of the same challenges Brust did as they try to adapt to life in Lithuania. The younger brothers of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball signed Monday with the Lithuanian club, BC Prienai, ending a calendar week-long search for an overseas professional person team willing to try to develop both of them.
LiAngelo parted ways last week with UCLA afterward his infamously outspoken father LaVar became frustrated with the length of the intermission his heart son was serving for shoplifting in China. The 19-year-onetime swingman and UCLA teammates Cody Riley and Jordan Hill had missed eight games since returning to Los Angeles and had not been allowed to do or travel with the Bruins.
LaMelo left Chino Hills High School a few months ago to be home-schooled because LaVar no longer got along with the school'due south new basketball coach. The sixteen-year-old'due south hereafter in college basketball was already in incertitude after LaVar jeopardized his NCAA eligibility in August by giving him his own Big Baller Make signature shoe.
The team that LiAngelo and LaMelo are joining is based in Prienai, a scenic ten,000-person town that attracts tourists interested in taking advantage of the surrounding rivers, lakes and forest. It's a 90-minute drive from Lithuania's uppercase, Vilnius, and a 40-minute drive from the country'due south nearest big city, Kaunas.
Information technology may be difficult for LiAngelo and LaMelo to develop at BC Prienai since the jitney reportedly has a volatile atmosphere and speaks little English. Billy Businesswoman, an American guard who one time played on a different team coached by Virginijus Šeškus, tweeted before this calendar week that he does non have fond memories of that experience.
"Same coach there is the one who told me during training camp (through a translator) he wouldn't play me much my rookie year at Rytas because he didn't speak English," Baron said.
Simply 1 American has played for BC Prienai in the past decade: Former Vanderbilt guard Brad Tinsley. When reached by Yahoo Sports on Tuesday, Tinsley declined to annotate on why he left the team this past October later only 2 months.
While adjusting to an unfamiliar linguistic communication, a gloomier climate and a new lifestyle will be hard for LiAngelo and LaMelo, the challenge of competing against grown men may plough out to be even tougher. Future NBA players Brandon Jennings and Jeremy Tyler both struggled transitioning straight from high school basketball to matching up against savvier, stronger professional players in Italy and Israel.
The acme of the Lithuanian League features a pair of powerful teams that regularly participate in EuroLeague and EuroCup, merely BC Prienai is unlikely to ask the Ball brothers to play in those games. They'll probably instead just play for BC Prienai in the less competitive Baltic League, which includes lower-tier Lithuanian clubs and teams from neighboring Republic of latvia, Republic of estonia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
"It'southward a depression-level league, but information technology will nonetheless exist a huge aligning for them," said Francesco Cavalli, managing director of scouting for EuroHopes.com. "They'll play against players who aren't as talented, only they're more experienced and more than physical, they brand decisions chop-chop and they know every play a trick on in the book. It'south only a totally unlike environment."
NBA scouts who spoke to Yahoo Sports last week were skeptical that either LiAngelo or LaMelo are fix to make an impact for an overseas team of any level.
LaMelo, a consensus five-star recruit inbound his junior twelvemonth in high schoolhouse, is considered the more talented of the two. The slender 6-pes-iii combo baby-sit is a natural scorer off the dribble who has shown potential as an exterior shooter and facilitator, but he would benefit from a bus who played a more traditional system than what LaVar favors, one who would emphasize shot selection and forcefulness LaMelo to defend for the first time in his career.
Coaches familiar with LiAngelo in high school pegged him as a small-ball power forward at a mid-major program had UCLA non taken him every bit part of a package deal with his brothers. The 6-foot-5 swingman is a unsafe spot-upward shooter, merely he lacks the quickness or athleticism to assault off the dribble, nor has he learned to take advantage of his strength in the post. His defense is as well a major question as he isn't able to stay in front of wings off the dribble yet he's shorter than nearly power forwards.
"No young players, with the exception of the occasional DeAndre Ayton or Luka Doncic, are good plenty to succeed in the superlative division overseas or in the G League at 18 or 19 years old," ane NBA scout said last week. "LiAngelo could probably play 3rd division in Spain, France or Germany. I dubiety that's what he has in heed."
It won't cost BC Prienai much money to find out if LiAngelo and LaMelo tin exceed scouts' expectations. Cavalli said that players in the Baltic League typically receive about $1,000 per month salary.
BC Prienai could also do good more from the publicity information technology receives past adding the Ball brothers than information technology would annihilation LiAngelo or LaMelo do on the court. General manager Adomas Kubilius did not return an email seeking comment from Yahoo Sports, simply he told Lithuanian journalist Donatas Urbonas that attracting new advertisers was i of the motivations behind the deal.
BC Vytautas Prienai want to sell the ad on the front end of the bailiwick of jersey for The states visitor merely for €fifty 000
— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) December 12, 2017
Vytautas Prienai manager Adomas Kubilius: 'We don't know what to expect. But nosotros promise that it will help the gild. Nosotros already got a lot of attention. I hope information technology will also helps united states financially. This is intriguing'
— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) December 12, 2017
"In my stance, we shouldn't see this as a basketball game motion," Cavalli said. "Information technology'south a marketing move. That's it. These kids are non ready to play pro basketball."
Added ESPN international draft skilful Fran Fraschilla, "I think this is a publicity stunt."
What'southward in information technology for LaVar Ball besides the chance to crow about his younger sons playing professional basketball as teenagers? More attention for the fledgling Big Baller Make and some potential fodder for the third season of the Ball in the Family reality Tv evidence.
Get ready for footage of LaMelo and LiAngelo trying to society dinner off a Lithuanian carte. It will be the basketball game version of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie trying to milk a cow on The Simple Life.
"It's going to be amazing," Brust said with a express mirth. "I want the new season of Ball in the family, the Assurance accept on Lithuania, to start ASAP. I'm intrigued to see someone of their popularity share the aforementioned feel I did."
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Jeff Eisenberg is a college basketball game author for Yahoo Sports. Accept a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/ball-brothers-picked-worst-possible-place-says-american-played-lithuania-222233839.html
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