It’s the end of an era now that LaVar Ball has decided to home-school his 16-year-old son, LaMelo, bringing to a close a run at Chino H…
Eric Sondheimer has been covering high school sports for the Los Angeles Times since 1997 and in Southern California since 1976. Get his latest from the field and follow all our prep sports coverage and analysis here.
It’s the end of an era now that LaVar Ball has decided to home-school his 16-year-old son, LaMelo, bringing to a close a run at Chino HIlls that was unlike any other I’ve witnessed in more than 40 years of covering high school sports.
The Chino Hills phenomena really took off when Lonzo Ball was a senior, brother LiAngelo was a junior and LaMelo started playing for Chino Hills during the summer as a 13-year-old freshman. Coach Steve Baik wasted no time and inserted him into the starting lineup. The results were stunning. The Ball brothers were unstoppable. They ran up and down the court nonstop. They shot from anywhere. They entertained like the Harlem Globetrotters.
That season, Chino Hills went 35-0. The Huskies blew out Mater Dei, 102-54. It was a social media circus. Anyone with a camera was showing up to games. The lines outside were long. The gyms were sold out. LaVar was talking and boasting and predicting, but the season was about winning a championship. Nothing else mattered.
Then came last season. Lonzo was at UCLA. LaVar was putting together plans for Big Baller and dreams of his son playing for the Lakers.
