AAU basketball games typically are just attended by the players’ family and friends, but the Adidas Uprising Summer Championship game in Las Vegas wasn’t just an ordinary game.
That’s because LaMelo Ball and the Big Ballers were taking on Zion Williamson and the South Carolina Supreme. Ball’s claim to fame, of course, is being the younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo and son of the now infamous LaVar Ball.
Williamson, on the other hand, has become a YouTube sensation for his thunderous dunks and devastating blocks. And while both Zion and LaMelo still are teenagers, you’d never guess by the turn out at the Cashman Center.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” David Pump, who has been a prominent figure in the summer basketball scene for years, told CBS Sports. “They’re rock stars.”
In fact, there was so much interest in the game that arguably the NBA’s marquee star was advised to stay away from the arena.
“How crazy was it? So crazy that LeBron James — who is in Las Vegas and had planned on attending the LaMelo Ball-Zion Williamson showdown — was ultimately encouraged to stay away, an Adidas official told Las Vegas Police,” Gary Parish of CBS Sports writes. “The scene was already too chaotic. The King’s presence would’ve just made it wilder.”
The game, which didn’t tip off until after midnight on the East Coast, received 800,000 Facebook Live views. And even when the contest ended minutes before 2 a.m. ET, 50,000 people still were tuning in.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, the Supreme picked up a 104-92 win over the Big Ballers.
Thumbnail photo via David Richard/USA TODAY Sports Images
