NBL Commissioner Jeremy Loeliger said: “LaMelo’s draft stocks have significantly improved during the course of his season here in the NBL. He has shown his undoubted talent but also developed as a player and a person by spending time in a professional, world class league. Like all NBL Next Stars, we are proud to have played a part in his journey to the NBA and we look forward to maintaining a close association with him as he takes the next steps in his professional career.”
Tag: Jeremy Loeliger
NBL CEO says LaMelo Ball has had biggest ever impact on league
NBL CEO Jeremy Loeliger spoke recently on LaMelo Ball’s enormous impact on the league in his one year with Illawarra.
LaMelo Ball’s impact on and off the court this season with the National Basketball League (NBL) has been evident from the moment he stepped foot in Australia. On top of breaking attendance and viewership records, Ball is breaking records on the court, particularly in recent weeks.
Ball has brought the league to a mainstream audience, a fact not lost on the upper brass within the league. In a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, NBL CEO Jeremy Loeliger not only had his highest praise yet for Ball.
“LaMelo Ball has had the biggest impact on this league that any player has ever had. We never had a North American viewership until this season, we were available there and some people were tuning in but you couldn’t talk about a consistent audience. We’ve had over 10 million views of the highlights of his triple-double.”
Ball’s growing list of accomplishments includes being apart of the most-attended and most-watched game against the New Zealand Breakers in the first meeting with R.J. Hampton. The game drew an attendance of 17.516 and a television viewership of over two million people.
He has parlayed that off-court success into on-court success with consecutive triple-doubles for Illawarra. That has led to him moving to the top spot in the DraftExpress’ latest 2020 NBA Draft big board.