The Big Baller Brand experience in Lithuania appears to be over after a brief, three-month stint.
According to Lithuania reporter Donatas Urbonas, LaVar Ball has decided to pull his sons from BC Vytautas with two LKL regular season games remaining on the schedule, due to LiAngelo's ankle injury and 16-year old LaMelo's lack of playing time.
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According to Urbonas, part of LaVar's reasoning to cut short their European basketball experiment is because LiAngelo needs time to better prepare for the NBA Draft combine and pre-draft camps. LiAngelo, 19, declared for the 2018 NBA Draft late last month.
Another reason why the Ball brothers are leaving Lithuania - LaVar "just didn’t get along with the coach." When asked about the possibility of LaMelo returning to Lithuania, LaVar reportedly responded, “You really ask me this? Coach ruined everything and he’ll have to pay the price that Melo is not coming back.”
According to Bleacher Report, in 14 games with Vytautas, not counting the Big Baller Brand Challenge exhibition games, LiAngelo averaged 12.6 points per game, which ranked second on the team, while shooting 41.5% from three-point range. LaMelo, on the other hand, averaged just 6.5 points and 2.4 assists in a little over 12.4 minutes in eight games. He shot 26.8% from the field on 15-of-56 shooting.
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