LaVar Ball ventured into unchartered waters in the summer of 2018 with the formation of the Junior Basketball Association (JBA). Ideally, the league would have served as a bridge between high school and the NBA as an alternative route to NCAA basketball. And for one season, it did do that, offering kids an early chance at professional basketball in the states.
But the ill-fated league ran into a litany of problems ranging from payments to poor attendance to lack of talent. Once LaMelo Ball found an alternative route himself to NCAA basketball in the NBL, the league vanished as quickly as it was formed. The league never served as much of a threat to either college basketball or the G League, but that didn’t stop LaVar from thinking as much.
During an interview with Heavy, Ball was asked about the G League’s recent changes to serve as an alternative itself to college basketball and made it known that he felt it was at least partially a response to the JBA.
“Well the NCAA and the G-League have to do something different and I don’t need people on the outside saying that, ‘Oh Lavar Ball, he did that…’ I’ma do what I do. People gotta respond to it. I just want to open their eyes and say you know if you want to do something, go do what you want to do and not go through other things…If you want to go play basketball, then why you got to study for a chemistry test and a Spanish test if you really want to focus on basketball?
So like I said they have to make some decisions or how are we going to keep the youth? And if you just want to play basketball, then this is for you. Now it’s not for everybody because you might not be talented as you think you are, but guess what? You can get an education so you can get a job and take care of yourself. But if you want to go all in, go 100% in and want perfection that’s your option and if it doesn’t work out, there’s another option and that’s the end of that.”
The sentiment Ball has about the necessity of an alternative and the reasoning for it is sound. It’s the same logic he used when explaining the purpose of the JBA. But Ball also overstates the impact of the JBA. In the end, Ball’s league was a small blip on the radars of the NCAA and NBA that left as quickly as it came.
The argument Ball may have, though, is that the JBA may have laid the blueprint on what an alternative could look like. Providing players with an outlet to play games, train and focus on basketball as opposed to schooling.
In reality, though, the only true threat to the NCAA and the G League was the Next Stars program in the National Basketball League in Australia. Ironically, LaMelo did ultimately play a role in changing the game, but it certainly didn’t include the JBA.
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