WBOB Original Reads

SALK: The Balls can Ball

2/10/2017

Tyler Salk

Imagine not being able to recruit players for a team, and facing off with teams that do recruit their talent. Then imagine beating those teams, going undefeated, and losing your best player to UCLA. What will you do the next year? You probably won’t be able to retain your number one ranking the entire season. That is, unless you are Chino Hills .

You probably haven’t heard of the school. Located in San Bernardino county, Chino Hills is the reigning high school national champions in boy’s basketball. Lonzo Ball, the team’s leader, currently plays for UCLA and is a top five pick in every NBA mock draft. He was also the National High School Player of the Year. A public high school, Chino Hills cannot recruit players, but they haven’t taken a step back this season without Lonzo.

Lonzo’s little brother, LiAngelo, is one of two current seniors with three star recruiting rankings. He will also be playing for UCLA next season. His other little brother, LaMelo is a sophomore who just scored 92 points in a 32-minute game. Joining LaMelo is another five-star sophomore Onyeka Okongwu , for a team that despite losing an NBA lottery pick, keeps on winning.

This team passes, they run, and they shoot better thananyone in the nation . These are unselfish players that outplay the best competition this country has to offer. Look up Chino Hills on YouTube. When you watch their highlights, it doesn’t feel like you are watching a group of teenagers. These are some of the best kids in the country playing at an unthinkable level for their age. They lost their first game in two years recently, but LaMelo Ball responded in a huge way.

This is a young team, that is going to be around for a while. They have defeated some of the top teams without last year’s leader, and will be retaining their two next beast players for two more years. This is not the last time that you will hear about the awesomeness that is Chino Hills basketball and the Ball brothers.