Lonzo Ball: biography
Lonzo Anderson Ball is an American professional basketball player performing for the NBA team Los Angeles Lakers. His position during the game – a point guard, number – the second. Earlier he has played for the UCLA Bruins team and has been the part of the All-American team.
Childhood and youth
Ball was born in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Anaheim, California to LaVar and Tina Ball who were both former college basketball players. Initially, LaVar, a man of 1.98m height, played for Washington. Later he changed the team for Cal State Los Angeles where he met his future wife, – Tina. Also, LaVar was a professional American football player, performed for the London Monarchs in the World League of American Football.
Further interests of his son are clear: the boy became interested in basketball at the age of two. Ball trained together with his brothers: LiAngelo and LaMelo, the trainer was none other but LaVar.
Being a student of Chino Hills High School, Lonzo played for the Chino Hills, California team. In the season 2014-2015, his average results were: 25 points, 11 rebounds, 9.1 assists, five blocks, and five steals. Lonzo's younger brothers and a cousin Ashley also were the team's players.
In his senior year, the team got the Champion title in California, USA. The total amount of their victories was 35, of losing – 0. Due to it, the club was named No. 1 team in the nation
Professional career
On June 22. 2017, Ball was selected with the second overall pick of the 2017 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Later he was nominated for a lot of awards, including Naismith Prep Player of the Year Award, The Morgan Prize. Lonzo was selected to the High School team and got the title of Mr. Basketball USA.
During the 2017 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Ball was named the league MVP after averaging 16.3 points, 9.3 assists, 7.7 rebounds, 2.5 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game. He had two triple-doubles, the first in Vegas since 2008 and the first ever in Vegas by a rookie
In four games the player managed to make 10+ assists. Lonzo became the first player in basketball history to make more than ten assists per game. Moreover, the player broke a record of 9.3 assists per game on average.
On October 20, 2017 in the second game of the Championship against the Phoenix Suns he didn't succeed to make one more assist to be named the youngest player to notch a triple-double in NBA history.
In the next match, Lonzo had 8 points, eight rebounds and 13 assists which let him become the youngest player in the history of the Lakers to get at least ten assists in a game.
However, his team was beaten by the New Orleans Pelicans with 119–112 score. On November 11 his club was defeated by the Milwaukee Bucks (score 98-90), but Lonzo, having 19 points, 13 assists and 12 rebounds, became the youngest basketball player at the time to achieve a triple-double at the age of 20 years and 15 days old. He broke James's record by five days.
On 19 November the player had a triple-double of 11 points, 16 rebounds, and 11 assists. It helped the team to win over the Denver Nuggets (score 127-109).
Also, Ball with newcomers Ben Simmons, Connie Hawkins, Art Williams, and Oscar Robertson had several triple-doubles in the 20 matches in NBA.
The player had to miss Christmas games because of the left chest injury which he got during the match against the Portland Trail Blazers. Before his trauma, Lonzo had improved the statistics of the game hugely: 34.9 percent from the field and 29.7 percent on three-pointers after having made 44 percent of his field goals and 44.2 percent of his three-pointers.
He was able to get back to games only six missed matches later. Healthy Lonzo succeeded to play five matches and got injured again on 13 January 2018. New left knee trauma made him miss three weeks of games.
In total; the player has missed 15 fights.
On 23 February Lonzo came back to games(but not being the starting player), had 9 points, seven rebounds, and six assists. As a result, his team won over the Mavericks with the 124-102 score. The trainer staff had to reduce the time of Ball' s playing because of the health problems.
On 22 May the player was selected to the second NBA All-Rookie Team.
Before the 2018-2019 season, Lonzo Ball underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee to repair a torn meniscus. His trainer, Luke Walton, noted that the player would play with caution some time.
Also, veteran point guard Rajon Rondo joined the team who was to mentor and compete with Lonzo. On 15 December 2018, in the win against the Charlotte Hornets, the duo Lonzo Ball and LeBron Raymone James became the first teammates to achieve a triple-double in the same game since Jason Kidd, and Vince Carter did it in 2007. Ball posted 16 points, ten rebounds, and ten assists, while James had 24 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists.
Earlier players to achieve such results were Earvin Effay "Magic" Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1982.
Music career
Apart from sport, Lonzo is interested in music. To be precise, in rap. In September 2017 the sportsman released his first rap-single «Melo Ball 1». Kenneth Page, an American actor and cabaret singer, helped Ball to create a song. It was dedicated to Ball' s younger brother LaMelo.
In October 2017 Lonzo released one more single named "Super Saiyan" which is dedicated to the favorite anime Dragon Ball Z. In the song, Ball compares himself to the main protagonist Goku.
On February 15, 2018, Ball and his father took part in the Lip Sync Battle as competitors. That same day, Lonzo released his debut album called Born 2 Ball. In March the album peaked at No. 42 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart and No. 13 on its Heatseekers Albums chart
Personal life
Lonzo Ball had previously been dating to Denise Garcia which he had met at the High School. The girl is also into the sport: being a student she played soccer.
She has been named to the Second Team All-League twice and led her team to the CIF Semifinals in 2012 and the CIF Quarterfinals a year later.
She also attended Seattle University before joining UC Riverside after her freshman year.In 2018 she graduated from the University. Interestingly, Denise is two years older than Lonzo.
They later split up in the summer of 2018. They have a daughter
Lonzo' s business
Besides sport and music, Lonzo runs his fathers business: the brand Big Boller Brand. In may 2017 the company announced the release of the first Boll' s sneakers ZO2. The price of $495 caused a wave of criticism in Social Media. In response to it, LaVar wrote in his twitter profile:
“If You Can’t Afford ZO2’s, You’re Not A Big Baller.”
In August 2017 LaVar Ball and his sons published the first episode of the reality-show «Ball In The Family» in Facebook.
On December 20, 2017, Ball was announced as the logo for the Junior Basketball Association (JBA), a league his father LaVar planned to establish for high-school basketball players who have finished high school but want an alternative option to the NCAA.
The fortune of Lonzo Ball runs approximately $ 6 million.
It is interesting that Lonzo’s fan army is the largest compared to any of the NBA players of his age. Tickets at his matches were sold out instantly even when he played for the college.
Awards and honors
Lonzo Ball has a huge amount of awards, such as:
NBA
- 2× Rising Stars Challenge (2018, 2019)
- NBA All-Rookie Second Team (2018)
College
- Associated Press first-team All-American (2017)
- USBWA first-team All-American (2017)
- NABC first-team All-American (2017)
- Sporting News first-team All-American (2017)
- First-team All-Pac-12 (2017)
High school
- Naismith Prep Player of the Year (2016)
- Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year (2016)
- USA Today Player of the Year (2016)
- Mr. Basketball USA (2016)
- McDonald's All-American (2016)
