UCLA basketball got exactly what it wanted out of the Ball family

After one exhibition game appearance and one international incident, it appears the LiAngelo Ball era at UCLA has come to an abrupt close.

In various interviews with a number of national outlets Monday, LaVar Ball revealed he was pulling his middle son off the UCLA basketball team and withdrawing him from the university. LiAngelo Ball had been indefinitely suspended since he and two freshman teammates were caught shoplifting during UCLA’s trip to China last month. The incident made international headlines and resulted in a public war of words between the patriarch of the Ball family and the President of the United States.

This marked the second time in 2017 that LaVar Ball has abruptly pulled one of his sons out of school.

In October, LaVar announced that his youngest son, 16-year-old LaMelo Ball, was being pulled out of Chino Hills High School and would be home-schooled. LaVar reportedly had issues with first-year Chino Hills boys basketball coach Dennis Latimore, who had yet to coach his first official practice at the school. It was also revealed that LaMelo, one of the top players in the class of 2019, was being given his own signature shoe via LaVar’s “Big Baller Brand,” making him the first 16-year-old ever to own such a distinction.

On Monday night, Yahoo reported options were being explored to send both LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball overseas to begin their professional careers. Essentially, the turbulent relationship between the Ball family and UCLA has come to an end years before the pair had originally intended.

The relationship between the Balls and UCLA, which officially took effect in January 2014, was always primarily about Lonzo Ball. The five-star virtuoso point guard was bound for greatness regardless of where he played in college and regardless of how preposterously one of his legal guardians chose to behave. He was the type of player who could transform UCLA basketball, even if he was only a Bruin for one season.

Transformation is exactly what happened last winter.

With Lonzo leading the way, the 2016-17 UCLA Bruins went from a 15-17 team that was so bad the season before that head coach Steve Alford paid back a portion of his compensation, to one that was among the most talented and elite in the entire country. The up-tempo Bruins thrilled the viewing public, averaging more points per game than all but one team in Division I, ultimately earning a No. 3 seed and advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

Perhaps as important as the 31 wins, Lonzo Ball’s presence at UCLA made the Bruins cool again. It justified Under Armour giving the school the highest-paying apparel deal of all-time, and it restored fan faith in Alford and the direction of the proud program. So if LiAngelo Ball, generously rated as a three-star prospect, and LaMelo Ball, who committed to UCLA as a 13-year-old seventh grader, had to be along for the ride as well, then so be it. In the grand scheme of things, it was all a small price to pay for the one season of Lonzo. Or so it seemed at the time.

LaVar Ball was always going to be a distraction, but he was a manageable one for UCLA when Lonzo was the son in question. With LiAngelo, things were bound to be more difficult. Play the kid too much, and it might cost you team chemistry or even a couple of wins. Don’t play him enough, and get ready to see his dad’s criticism as the top story on your ESPN scream-at-each-other show of choice the next morning. It would be hard to blame Alford, and anyone else caught up in the situation, for looking to find a way out.

Now they don’t have to.

Scouts seem to be somewhat split on LaMelo Ball’s status as a legitimate NBA prospect. He may turn out to be a fine player, but the likelihood of him evolving into a player the caliber of his oldest sibling was always a long shot. And even if such an evolution did occur, it still likely wouldn’t be a positive large enough to outweigh the negative of a father whose redeeming qualities become harder and harder to find every time he makes a national headline.

Lonzo Ball is a multi-millionaire who might be one of the 15 most famous players in the NBA already, and some of the credit for that certainly belongs to his father. Having said that, the first part of that status would have likely been true had you or I raised the kid. The second part may well have become true with due time.

The younger two Ball brothers will likely have money regardless of what they do with the rest of their lives. If what they want to do in the immediate future is play basketball and be put in a position where they can succeed, well then it’s hard to see how the actions of their father in recent months have helped make that a more likely reality.

The Ball brothers themselves have always seemed likable enough. Outside of LiAngelo’s issues abroad, there have been no grand accusations of nefarious behavior levied against them. They play an entertaining style of basketball that requires equal parts of effort and panache. They also have what Russell Hammond would refer to as “the buzz.” The buzz is good. But when a noise louder than a buzz is amplified in the same way over and over again, it eventually drowns out everything around it and strips those things of their value. Having the buzz no longer becomes worth it.

Outside of a few parting shots, the noise isn’t UCLA’s problem anymore.