LiAngelo didn’t hear his name called draft night … leaving some to wonder what’s next for the kid, who LaVar promised would one day join Lonzo on the Lakers. We got P out in L.A. and he made it clear he thinks it was a mistake for Gelo to leave UCLA in the first place, and told our guy he thinks the 19-year-old should hightail it back to Westwood. “I mean if he can, I would go back.”
NCAA Rumors
P wasn’t finished … saying he thinks the fact that he’s currently without a basketball team should be a wake-up call to LiAngelo … about his father. “It just show you that Lavar don’t have that magic ball like he thought he had.”
The Detroit Pistons were in need of a head coach and reached out to Michigan’s John Beilein. And Beilein reciprocated, flirting with the idea of coaching in the NBA. The flame eventually fizzled after the news became public and Beilein wasn’t offered the job, which led him to pulling his name from candidacy and staying put at Michigan.
After going through a similar process himself, Beilein said he doesn’t plan on testing the NBA waters again. “It was location, location, location,” Beilein said of the Pistons job on WBBL’s “The Huge Show” earlier this week. “(Wife) Kathleen and I, we love it. We have our daughter Seana in Saline with her three grandkids and her husband. We wouldn’t really have to move. It was appealing to me and the interest was mutual to an extent, but they had some other great options and I had a great option.
At age 65, time isn’t exactly on Beilein’s side. That means this recent dance with the Pistons was likely his final shot to test himself at the highest level and could be the last time he would’ve ever been in a conversation for an NBA job. “That’s probably a fair bet. Who knows? This might be my last extension,” Beilein said. “I wanted one more shot at really building the culture and seeing a team through. Whether it was at Michigan or with the Detroit Pistons, I was up for both.”
Ed O’Bannon and Earl Watson believe that the Big Baller Brand eight-team Junior Basketball Association, which starts on June 21, will give kids who might not have been able to play in college an alternative way to pursue their dreams. LaMelo Ball will play on the Los Angeles squad. “They are part of a team and they are going to get paid and they get to represent the name on the jersey and name on the back,” said O’Bannon, who along with Watson is on the JBA advisory board. “The time for this league was well overdue. I love the fact that they aren’t blue chippers [that were recruited] and the fact that they have been given up on or maybe they didn’t have the grades [for college], whatever the situation is, they are here now and they will make the most of this great opportunity.”
