In a fast-evolving story over recent days, Jermaine Jackson, manager to LaMelo Ball, confirmed with ESPN on Thursday that he and Ball are new owners of the Illawarra Hawks. A very short quote from Jackson to DraftExpress’ Jonathan Givony seemingly put the punctuation on a wild story.
“We own the team. It’s a done deal.”
A story that started gaining legs on Tuesday with reports that Ball and Jackson expressed interest in purchasing the Hawks accelerated quickly before week’s end. Late Thursday night in America, the Illawarra Mercury reported that Ball was close to securing ownership of the franchise he played for last season in the NBL.
Jackson and Ball developed a connection with the Wollongong community and the Hawks franchise which led to them reaching out once hearing the problems the franchise was suffering financially.
“Melo loves the Illawarra fans. He loves that community. They opened their arms to him. They made us feel like we are at home. When we started hearing about the issues they were going through, we talked about it and decided, ‘Let’s own the team.’
“He is going to be locked into his NBA career, but we are going to hire the right people to oversee everything. He wants to create the best basketball program possible for that community there.”
The move has yet to be made official by either the club or the league. However, it appears to only be a matter of time before Ball is the new owner of an NBL franchise.
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