LaMelo Effect: Youngest Ball Sibling Breaks Viewership Record In NBL Debut

Since Lonzo's departure from the Los Angeles Lakers, the Ball family's hype train has toned down in the past months. However, that silence will not last very long as Lavar's youngest son, LaMelo, is showing the world that he can hoop.

Last Saturday (October 5), LaMelo made his debut for the Illawarra Hawks of the NBL, a men's professional basketball league in the Oceania region. The potential no. 1 pick of class 2020 of the annual NBA Draft didn't disappoint. Ball finished with 12 points, ten rebounds, five assists and four steals in his first appearance as a member of the Hawks.

It's worth taking note that LaMelo didn't turn the Ball over in 32 minutes of playing time while showing glimpses of his flashy ball-handling and underrated perimeter defense.

His team did lose against a much more cohesive Brisbane Bullets squad lead by fellow American Lamar Patterson, but the future is bright for the 18-year-old prospect.

LaMelo also created so much hype that the Hawks' first game of the season was the most-watched game in the history of the NBL. In Facebook alone, Lonzo's younger brother helped generate more than one million views on the social media platform.

Even a video of Ball's double-cross drew 2.6 million views, a superior number even for most NBL highlights. The league's Instagram account has reportedly doubled since last season's opener, with Facebook engagements higher by 250 percent, and 340 percent on Twitter.

The LaMelo effect has been all over the NBL and it will undoubtedly continue to rise as the season progresses. NBL owner and executive chairman Larry Kestelman said that the numbers are "huge" by "any measure," adding that it has confirmed "the NBL's status as a global entertainment product."

Kestelman also believes that there is a lot of interest in LaMelo and fellow prospect R.J. Hampton ahead of the 2020 NBA Draft.

"Our games are being broadcast to... 130 million people across the world, including the U.S., Europe and Asia," quipped the NBL executive.

LaMelo has undoubtedly improved since he was a member of the Vytautas Prienu in the Lietuvos krepšinio lyga or LKL in 2017. He played eight games as a member of the Lithuanian squad, averaging 6.5 points, 1.1 rebounds, 2.38 assists and 1.25 turnovers per game.

It seems we will hear a lot from Lavar anytime soon. For LaMelo, the future is very bright, maybe even more hopeful than Lonzo's current situation.