LaMelo Ball Famous 'Like a Kardashian' but Actually Has Talent, NBL Analyst Says

LaMelo Ball emerged as the potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft while playing with the Illawarra Hawks in Australia's National Basketball League.

NBL analyst Corey Williams believes the hype.

"This kid's got New York written all over him," Williams told SNY's Ian Begley. "It wouldn't be nothing [he couldn't] handle. He's always been in the spotlight. He's famous like a Kardashian but he actually has talent."

Ball is the youngest son of LaVar Ball. New Orleans Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball was taken second overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2017, while LiAngelo Ball signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder's G League affiliate in March.

The 18-year-old point guard averaged 17 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.0 assists across 12 starts for the Hawks before a foot injury prematurely ended his 2019-20 season.

As for the likelihood Ball ends up in New York with the Knicks, the team didn't get to do the preferred due diligence because of the foot injury.

"According to a source, the Knicks never got a chance to see the 6-foot-7 guard play live Down Under," Marc Berman of the New York Post reported Jan. 18. "Brass had plotted the trip for this month."

The "Kardashian" element reportedly isn't lost on NBA teams, either.

"NBA executives say they'd feel more comfortable selecting him if they could study him in person when he talks about the anticipated involvement of his father, LaVar Ball, who became persona non grata with the Lakers after they drafted one of his other sons, Lonzo, three years ago," Bleacher Report's Ric Bucher wrote March 27.

Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman ranked Ball No. 1 on his latest big board.