LiAngelo Ball decides to enter NBA draft

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Wednesday, March 28, 2018

LiAngelo Ball is making himself available for the NBA draft, his agent, Harrison Gaines, told ESPN on Tuesday.

Ball is expected to work out for some NBA teams and will participate at the Professional Basketball Combine in May at IMG Academy in Florida, Gaines told Yahoo! Sports.

Ball, the 19-year-old brother of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball, has been playing professionally in Lithuania after leaving UCLA.

LiAngelo's draft declaration came just hours before he scored 72 points in a Big Baller Brand Challenge game between Vytautas Prienu and the Guangdong Southern Tigers, a youth team from China.

Ball's younger brother LaMelo added 36 points and his father LaVar served as the team's head coach in the 159-115 win.

LiAngelo Ball was embroiled in a shoplifting scandal in China last year while on a trip with the Bruins. Upon his return to the United States, he was suspended indefinitely by UCLA and left the program without having played a game.

His father said LiAngelo and LaMelo would be preparing for the NBA draft. LaMelo also has been playing in Lithuania.

Ball averaged 15.7 points in nine games withVytautas, but most experts agree he faces an uphill battle to be one of the players selected in the two rounds of the NBA draft in June.

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