According to a former player, the coach who will be coaching LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball doesn’t speak English and sells meat out of his car trunk to players.
That sounds like a joke, but check out this report from Fran Fraschilla:
Prominant former American player who played for Ball brothers's new coach had some insight on him: 1. Competent coach w/free-wheeling pick-and-roll offense. 2. Speaks no English 3. Screams the entire game. 4. Sold meat out of his car trunk to his players after practice. I swear.
— Fran Fraschilla (@franfraschilla) December 12, 2017
Another former player who spent time in the same league believes the Ball brothers won’t last more than a month in Lithuania:
“I think they’ll last a month maximum,” Brust told Yahoo Sports. “It seems like the worst possible place they could have picked.”
Brust said the transition from sunny Southern California to the cold climate will be rough on the brothers. Given their age, the fact that few Lithuanians in the small town of 7,500 speak English, and the fact there is barely any sunlight in the winter months, it’s not an ideal place to live.
“My American teammates and I would literally count down the days until we got back to America,” Brust said. “It was always cold and dark. There are only like 5 or 6 hours of sunlight every day, and you’re in a gym for half of it. It’s a good basketball league, but there are plenty of other places in Europe that I would much prefer to live.”
Brust said the luxury that college and some high school players are used to (nicer flights, upscale hotels) simply don’t exist in Lithuania. Many times, Brust said he and his teammates would use ferries to get to games and stay in cheap hotels to cut costs.
