Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Tracy Murray doesn’t think LaMelo Ball needs high-school basketball to be a star at UCLA.
He recently spoke with TMZ about the rising player and said the recent changes in the game have allowed for a different career path for players. “This is a different day. With AAU being so prevalent, he’s already committed to UCLA. With that already happening, it’s like why play high school basketball if you know where you’re going and you get to play AAU basketball and now he’s been pulled out of Chino Hills and he’s being homeschooled so the only thing that really matters at this point is that he’s taking college prep courses that's going to prepare him for UCLA,” said Murray. He also said the university won’t lose interest in LaMelo even though he’ll no longer be playing for his high school. “Traditionally, it’s like oh man why is he not playing? But with the way things are nowadays, I’m really feeling bad for high-school basketball because this is going to start being a trend,” he said. Murray thinks a lot of young players who dislike their coaches at their school will join the AAU and be scouted that way. They will also resort to being homeschooled.
