LiAngelo Ball, center, is flanked by brothers Lonzo, second from left, and LaMelo, right. during a playoff game Friday against Immanuel. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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By Bill Plaschke Contact Reporter
LA Times
March 12, 2016
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The snack bar sells Cheetos and Funyuns. The banners behind the basket advertise massages and sheet metal.
The white sign on the wall reads,
"Maximum Occupancy 1316", a number that was reached an hour before
Friday's game, when long lines of fans standing in chilly dampness were allowed
entry into rows of wooden bleachers that are now heated and hopping.
The national anthem is sung by a senior girl
athlete. The coach is given vigorous pregame handshakes by scruffy students.
The star player sits on the bench rocking to a rap song while chatting with a
tiny ball boy. The announcer solemnly asks everyone to be nice to the referees.
The scene is Hoosiers.
Then it is Showtime.
The Chino Hills High boys' basketball team
takes the floor and this community high school suddenly becomes Hollywood, home
to the best prep team in the country and the most entertaining hoops of any
sort in Southern California.
LiAngelo Ball looks to score against Immanuel during a regional playoff game on Friday at Chino Hills High.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) |
Five seconds into this state playoff game
against Reedley Immanuel, a lanky 6-foot-6 senior guard named Lonzo Ball nails
a long three-pointer. Then he blocks a shot. Then he streaks downcourt for a
layup. Then he twists through the lane for another layup. It is 7-0 before the
game is two minutes old, and fans are oohing, and aahing, and screaming, and
swaying, and it's not just about his kid who was recently named Naismith high
school player of the year.
Lonzo Ball has brothers. Two of them. They
play just like him. They are playing with him right now, and together the trio
is absolutely breathtaking. There is stocky 6-foot-6 junior LiAngelo Ball
knocking down long shots and lofting in floaters. There is wiry 5-foot-10
freshman LaMelo Ball dribbling and sprinting and shooting around confused
defenders.
All three have verbally committed to play for UCLA. From the looks of
it, a cynic might say all three could play for UCLA right now.
The Balls aren't some imported wonders from a
distant district. They grew up down the street, so this gym is their park, and
that's how they lead this team, with a delightful playground assortment of
floor-length passes, unconscionable shots from Temecula, theatrical leaps,
cinema swats and relentless running.
The crowd is packed tightly together, but
somehow manages to continually jump and stomp. The officials stop the game
twice to clear the end zone of fans and media. At one point, the Huskies' jump shots are
falling so fast, a student opens an umbrella and shrugs as if it's impossible
to stop the rain.
Actually, it might be impossible. Immanuel had
lost only five games, but it doesn't stand a chance. The Huskies lead by 17 at
halftime, by 23 after three quarters, and finish with a state-record-tying 18th
100-point game in a 103-71 victory that gives them a 32-0 record and puts them
three wins shy of a state title.
It is indeed Showtime, a brand of basketball
so uniquely glorious that late in the game, the students unleash an unusual yet
appropriate chant.
"Tri-ple-di-gits! ...
Tri-ple-di-gits!"
Yet it is also Hoosiers. Just listen to Debbie
Long and Lorae Vanden Berge, known as "Dubba and Lubba," the two
women who have been standing at the gym's front door taking tickets since the
school opened in 2001.
"This is not just a basketball
team," Long says, shouting to be heard over the refreshing din of
community greatness. "These are our boys."
::
The backyard wonder of a basketball team was
formed, appropriately, in a backyard.
Less than a mile from the Chino Hills campus,
behind the house in which they have lived since 1996, LaVar and Tina Ball
raised their three sons on two basketball goals. One was at the end of a slab
of concrete that stretched more than 30 feet. The other, on the side, contained
a double rim.
The Ball children learned to bomb on one goal,
and swish on the other, and then they would adjourn to a nearby park to run
until they had the stamina to put it all together for two hours.
Says Lonzo: "Everything we do on the
court, it's second nature to us, we've been doing for years at home."
If you're really that good, they will find you, doesn't matter
where you are. If you can find a seven-footer in Africa, you can find my boys
off the 71 in Chino Hills.— LaVar Ball, on why he sent his sons to Chino Hills High
instead of a well-known basketball program
LaVar Ball cheers for his sons during Chino Hills' victory over Immanuel during a regional playoff game Friday.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) |
Says LaVar: "All the battles, all the togetherness, it was all formed right here at home."
In a move that stunned longtime basketball
observers, the family has stayed home. In today's basketball landscape, young
stars usually transfer from local public schools to wealthy private
institutions that supposedly can better showcase their talents, but these
parents didn't agree.
"Everybody going left, I'm going
right," LaVar says with a grin.
Ball is a large man who grew up in a
close-knit South Los Angeles community, once played basketball at Washington
State and was a member of a couple of NFL practice squads. He knows the value
of sports, he knows the strength of neighborhoods, and he and his wife decided
their sons should have both.
"I'm saying, the school is right around
the corner, that's where we're going," he says. "If you're really
that good, they will find you, doesn't matter where you are. If you can find a
seven-footer in Africa, you can find my boys off the 71 in Chino Hills."
Ball was adamant that not only his boys stay
home, but that they stay together.
"I want to keep them together because,
like I told them, if you don't take care of your brothers, who will?"
LaVar says. "They've been together since babies. They love each other, and
they play together like it."
With the addition of 14-year-old freshman LaMelo
to the team, this is the first year that all three have played together at the
high school level. Add starters Elizjah Scott and Onyeka Okongwu to a group
that plays virtually the entire game, and the results have been astounding.
The Huskies won their season opener against San
Bernardino by 89 points. They scored at least 100 points in four of their first
five games. In one game they scored 85 points in one half. After one quarter of a
Southern Section playoff game against traditional powerhouse Mater Dei, they
led 33-6.
"It's been a dream come true," says
Coach Steve Baik, who changed his system to fit the Balls' talents.
When asked if he cringes when they attempt the
40-footers or circus alley-oops, he smiles.
"They shoot those shots in practice and
they make it," he says. "What we do in our games we do in our
practices. I love their confidence."
More than anything, Baik says, he loves their
humility, and who can blame him? The only thing more impressive than Chino
Hills' domination is that it occurs with such grace and class. There is no
gesturing, no taunting, no celebrating.
One
Ball brother will throw a floor-length pass to another Ball brother, who will
throw a no-look pass to another, who will nail a 35-foot fadeaway jumper, and
while the gym shakes from the screaming crowd, the expressionless boys simply
run to play defense.
"Playing the game you love, with the
people you love, it's a joy to do it every day," Lonzo says. "But we
also understand that we're playing for school, for our community, for something
bigger than ourselves."
The theme of staying together and staying
close to home extended to the college recruiting process, as LaVar thought one
place could fulfill all their needs, and that was UCLA.
In typical Ball fashion, instead of Lonzo
visiting there alone, the entire family showed up.
"We all walked into Steve Alford's office
and he had to pull in five chairs and a couch," Lavar said. "Coach
said, 'I'm not used to this.'"
Alford will get used to it. On the spot, all
three Balls verbally committed to UCLA. The addition of Lonzo next season
alone, as part of the nation's No. 3 recruiting class, has helped give the
embattled Alford a reprieve. And no, in the wake of this year's losing Bruin
season, the Balls are not listening to social media and changing their minds.
"People can say what they want, but Steve
wanted my boys from day one, our relationship is strong, and I'm never going to
leave his side," LaVar said. "It's a great school, it's close to
home, and the worst thing that can happen is that my boys get a degree from
UCLA."
::
On this Friday night, the benefits of staying
close to home can be seen everywhere.
LaVar sits in the front row at midcourt,
surrounded by all sorts of members of his family, the boy's two grandfathers
sitting next to each other, lots of folks wearing shirts that read "Ball
Nation" or "Ball Star" or "UnbelievaBall." Elsewhere
in the building are friends and neighbors of the entire Chino Hills team, folks
who grew up with these kids, folks willing to stand for two hours in line to
see how they turned out.
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