The Los Angeles Lakers were fortunate enough to retain their top-three protected draft pick in Tuesday night’s lottery despite just a 46.9 percent chance of success. When the dust settled they had actually jumped up from the third spot in the draft to the second, which appears to put them in prime position to select UCLA guard Lonzo Ball.
Ball, along with his outspoken father, LaVar, has long expressed his desire to play for his hometown Lakers. CBS Los Angeles went to the Ball household during the lottery and caught the family’s reaction to the Lakers moving up to second. As evidenced by the video above, they are just slightly excited.
Of course, LaVar is confident that Lonzo will wind up in a Lakers jersey, to the point where he recently told Lakers Nation’s own Ryan Ward that they will not work out for any team besides Los Angeles. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Lakers will select him, though.
While Ball is currently the favorite to wind up in Los Angeles, there are a number of other prospects, including Kansas’ Josh Jackson, Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk, and Duke’s Jayson Tatum to consider. It’s also possible that the Boston Celtics could select someone other than Washington’s Markelle Fultz with the first overall pick, which would allow him to slide to Los Angeles.
We won’t know for sure until the Lakers pick is officially announced on June 22nd, but until then, expect the entire Ball family to continue to campaign for Lonzo to be taken with the second pick.
