Be There Or Be Square

Source: Deadspin and Dan Petcach (HUDL)

LaMelo Ball is the brother of NBA basketball player, Lonzo Ball. LaMelo is a high school basketball player, who is in his senior year of high school. He currently attends Spire Institute, which is located in Geneva Ohio. LaMelo is famous for his good basketball skills and his famous family.

In LaMelo's freshman and sophomore year of high school, he attended Chino Hills High School in California and he was a star basketball player at the school. LaMelo scored 559 points in his freshman year of high school basketball and scored 882 points in his sophomore year of high school basketball. In LaMelo's junior year of high school, he played basketball overseas for a team called "BC Prienai."

If you did not know already, LaMelo is big time celebrity who has at least 450k followers on Twitter and at least 3.3 million followers on Instagram. LaMelo is only 17 years old. LaMelo's dad, LaVar, is the owner and founder of the company called, "Big Baller Brand". The Big Baller Brand is a company that sells athletic apparel. LaMelo Ball is a star and if you ever see him, you probably would want a picture with him because he is so famous that it's unbelievable.

LaMelo's team, Spire Institute will participate in a basketball tournament on December 8th as they will play the Pine-Richland Boys basketball team at Pine-Richland High School.

I don't know how much you are in to WPIAL sports or sports at all. But, this game is a big deal. This game is going to be packed it is going to be ridiculous. We do not know how LaMelo will play with his new teammates at Spire Institute; so, we cannot assume that just because Spire has LaMelo Ball that they will beat Pine-Richland. Pine-Richlands's Boys basketball team is very good as they almost won the boys WPIAL 6A basketball championship last season and they were one game away from making to the PIAA 6A basketball championship last season. So, Pine-Richland is very good.

Pine-Richland's Boys Basketball team's head coach, Jeff Ackermann, has gotten a lot of attention lately due to the fact that his son, Bryson, has been diagnosed with a neurological disease called Acute Flaccid Myelitis, or AFM. The hashtag, #BrysonStrong has been being used a lot throughout the Pine-Richland Area, the Chartiers Valley Area, the South Fayette Area and throughout all of Western Pennsylvania. Jeff Ackermann is a teacher at the Chartiers Valley High School and ever been his son has been diagnosed with AFM, Jeff has not been back to teach at the school. Jeff and his family live in the South Fayette area as his kids attend the school district. Just recently, the South Fayette school district made a video telling Bryson that they are supporting throughout his whole journey with the illness. There has been no report from any media source yet that has said if Jeff Ackermann will coach the Pine-Richland Boys basketball team for this season. I would imagine it would be hard to focus on anything else when one of your family members is suffering a disease like AFM.

Pine-Richland's basketball team will play this season without their star multi-sport athlete, Phil Jurkovec. He is not on the team anymore due to the fact that he graduated last school year. Phil is now playing football at the University Of Notre Dame. It would have been very cool to watch one of the best quarterbacks in the state of Pennsylvania last year in Phil Jurkovec play basketball against LaMelo Ball who is one of the most famous teenagers in the United States of America.

The Pine-Richland's basketball team will also play this season without their other star multi-sport athlete, Andrew Kristofic. Kristofic is still playing his senior year of football at Pine-Richland and in January, Kristofic will get his high school diploma and start college early as he will play football for the University Of Notre Dame. In a couple of years, we might see Kristofic block for Jurkovec in a Notre Dame football game. That would be cool to watch.

Anyway, when LaMelo comes to Pittsburgh on December 8th, the whole gymnasium of Pine-Richland High School is going to be packed. It's going to be insane. Anything is possible and there is a chance that LaVar Ball could be at the game. If LaVar does come to Pine-Richland High School, you already know that everybody would want a picture with him. If you enjoy the sport of basketball or if you live in Allegheny County or if you are interested in LaVar Ball and his family, then there is no reason why you would not want to go to that game. I would not be surprised in the slightest bit if ESPN comes to the gymnasium to report on LaMelo. If ESPN does come to Pine-Richland High School, not only will Spire Institute get publicity but, every single boys basketball player at Pine-Richland High School will get attention as well and that would be extremely good for the WPIAL.

I would not be surprised at all if we see other famous celebrities come to the game. I tried calling Pine-Richland High School today to see if they are selling any high school basketball tickets at the school but, the Athletic office told me that they were not selling any tickets yet. This game is important for the people in the WPIAL area to watch. A lot of people would want to get ahold of those tickets as early as possible.

I am serious when I say that this game might be just as popular as when LeBron James came to Pittsburgh in 2002 and played a high school basketball game at the Mellon Arena. At that game, LeBron scored 32 points for high school basketball team at the time, St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, and LeBron's team defeated New Castle 82-48. Also, star Pittsburgh Steelers at the time, Plaxico Burress, Hines Ward, Joey Porter, James Farrior and Jerome Bettis were at the game that day. So, perhaps maybe other star Pittsburgh athletes could be at the Spire Institute and Pine-Richland game.

This game is going to be fun to watch and the game should be hyped up a lot. December 8th could not come soon enough.