LaMelo Ball and his manager bought his Australian NBL team

In these trying times, leave it to the Ball family to keep providing ridiculous news stories.

ESPN is reporting that LaMelo Ball and his manager have purchased Ball’s Australian NBL team, the Illawarra Hawks. Ball has been playing with the Hawks since August and, after a strong season, is in the running to be the No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft.

Ball’s manager Jermaine Jackson (no relation to the Jackson 5) said his client’s focus will be on his NBA career, but he loves the Illawarra fans and community so much he wanted to help the team with its financial issues and, yes, seize an opportunity.

“When high school kids hear LaMelo owns the team, they will want to come,” Jackson said. “They’ll know they will be taken care of. We’re going to put the organization on steroids, building it into a program that guys want to play for. I’m in touch with several former NBA GMs that want to go there to help out and high-level coaches that won every championship you can imagine.”

In 12 games with the Hawks, LaMelo averaged 17.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 7.0 assists, posting back-to-back triple doubles before suffering a foot injury that cut his season short.

My question: Will Big Baller Brand design the jerseys?

[ESPN]