LaMelo Ball’s representatives are reportedly discussing a sneaker deal as he prepares to enter the 2020 NBA Draft.
According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, Ball was not seen wearing any Big Baller Brand (BBB) clothing or merchandise during the recent NBL Blitz preseason tournament in Australia.
Instead, he wore some Nike gear.
Ball’s camp has reportedly already been negotiating with multiple brands, but it isn’t clear which shoe he will wear once he gets to the NBA.
Ball has improved his draft stock and received high praise recently, as an NBA executive suggested he has a chance at being the No. 1 overall pick and an NBA scout compared him to Luka Doncic.
Per Givony, the NBA executive said, “If he keeps this up, I don’t see any way he isn’t in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick. He completely changed my perception of the type of prospect he is, and all of the background info I gathered here from his coaches and teammates paints a very different story of what I thought about him off the court as well.”
Just last month, Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman ranked Ball as the No. 6 overall player in the 2020 NBA Draft, behind Frenchmen Killian Hayes and Theo Maledon, Israel’s Deni Avdija, North Carolina’s Cole Anthony and Georgia’s Anthony Edwards.
LaVar Ball was very involved when Lonzo Ball was drafted No. 2 overall by the Los Angeles Lakers and even made Lonzo the face of the BBB company.
BBB hasn’t seen much success lately and Lonzo has since moved on from the company.
Lavar has reportedly not had the same involvement with LaMelo as he did with Lonzo, as LaMelo’s high school coach and former NBA player Jermaine Jackson is now his trainer and mentor.
Thanks to LaMelo Ball being a well-known name before getting to the NBA, his sneaker deal should be a pretty lucrative one, but maybe not as big as Zion Williamson’s five-year $75 million sneaker deal with Jordan.
