When Lonzo Ball warmed up for basketball practice at Pauley Pavilion earlier this week, the UCLA freshman wore red and black ankle socks emblazoned with “BBB.’’
That’s short for Big Baller Brand, the Chino Hills family’s apparel company that hawks $60 T-shirts and $100 hats through a website. Each letter represents a different Ball sibling: Lonzo and his UCLA-bound, high-school-aged brothers LiAngelo and LaMelo. The company’s social media pages call it the family’s “official brand.”
Their outspoken father, LaVar Ball, believes this is the start of a billion-dollar empire. But as UCLA faces Kentucky in a regional semifinal of the NCAA tournament on Friday in Memphis, Tenn.