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Last year, LaVar Ball made the decision to channel his inner Silicon Valley after deciding the sport of basketball needed some disrupting. He ultimately followed in the footsteps of countless startups by generating media buzz by making outlandish promises with no basis in reality before launching an overpriced product that failed to live up to expectations and quickly saw his master plan fall apart before eventually ending up in Lithuania.
I guess he ended up accidentally channeling his inner Silicon Valley instead.
In December, an undiscouraged Ball announced his latest venture: the Junior Basketball Association, a league he’s envisioned as an alternative to the NCAA that would allegedly pay players up to $10,000 per month. Ball has stated his intentions to attempt to lure high-profile recruits away from colleges, but based on recent reports, he might want to rethink his strategy.
SB Nation shared a couple of screenshots of DMs that were sent to two high schoolers from the official Big Baller Brand social media accounts, including recent Kentucky signee Tyler Herro, the fourth-ranked shooting guard in the country according to 247 Sports.
Big Baller Brand has contacted Kentucky Signee Tyler Herro about joining their new basketball league, the JBA. Herro has told me he has declined the offer. pic.twitter.com/qlnPXFoLPB
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) February 2, 2018
Ball also tracked down Syracuse commit Jalen Carey on Snapchat and extend the same offer.
Here’s the picture from Jalen’s Snapchat: pic.twitter.com/FvvROFxc77
— Syracuse Basketball (@cusesigel) February 1, 2018
Ball isn’t associated with the NCAA in any way— especially after withdrawing his son LiAngelo from UCLA— so he’s not technically guilty of any recruiting violations here besides the moral ones. I assume he’ll be about as successful at using this method as athletes usually are when hitting up people who used Instagram to get famous, but I guess we all have to start somewhere.