BASKETTBALL

After multiple weeks of searching for representation, the Ball family will sign with Roc Nation and Raymond Brothers, Roc Nation’s President of Basketball, as reported by ESPN’s Jonathan Givony on Monday.

Givony spoke with Jermaine Jackson, LaMelo Ball’s manager, on the decision to sign with Roc Nation.

“This was a family decision. This is now an extended family. They put together a beautiful game plan with Jay-Z. The basketball game is about to change. They are going to create something totally new.”

Roc Nation Sports was founded by music mogul Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter was founded in 2013, kickstarted by Robinson Cano’s signing with the New York Yankees. Since that date, it has grown to represent athletes such as Kyrie Irving, Markelle Fultz and Saquon Barkley.

Jackson and LaMelo appeared to have held a meeting with Roc Nation in late February. Pictures posted by Jackson to a secondary Instagram account showed Carter’s private jet.

The three brothers were formerly represented by Creative Artists Agency. The trio left the agency in early March. Some reports suggested that Leon Rose, who potentially represented LaMelo, leaving to take a front-office position with the Knicks led to departure of the family.

The move to Roc Nation comes at a critical time with the family. Lonzo can begin negotiating an extension in the upcoming off-season. LiAngelo, meanwhile, will be looking at potential Summer League and G League deals in the off-season and into next season as well. And, most obvious, LaMelo will be one of the top draft picks in the 2020 NBA Draft.

My oldest son was 5, in his second month of kindergarten, when his teacher asked why his dad hadn't been seen in the pickup line for a couple of weeks. "He's living with Dennis Rodman," my son answered, dripping nonchalance, as if this were a task every Catholic-school dad would eventually get around to completing.

The living arrangement was brief, roughly two weeks in the fall of 1995, and more of a necessity than a choice. I was working under an extreme deadline to write Rodman's autobiography, "Bad As I Wanna Be," and having prescribed interview times -- "From 9 to noon, we'll cover the prairie years" -- was not something that meshed with the Rodman lifestyle. So I headed to Southern California to camp out with him and his then-agent, Dwight Manley, a world-renowned coin expert who represented exactly zero other athletes at the time. Two weeks with Dennis Rodman in the mid-'90s might sound like a thrilling setup, but in reality, most of my time was spent in a panicked attempt to get Rodman to focus on telling the stories that needed to become a book in less than three months. The enduring image of that time in my life is Dennis, wearing Zubaz, lounging on a couch with a remote in his hand while I sit in a pool of my own sweat, trying to hear whatever he's mumbling over the roar of the television.

Kobe Bryant was already immortal. Now he’s officially a Hall of Famer as well. And he’s got plenty of elite company in the 2020 class. Bryant and fellow NBA greats Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett headlined a nine-person group announced Saturday as this year’s class of enshrinees into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

They all got into the Hall in their first year of eligibility, as did WNBA great Tamika Catchings. Two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich finally got his call, as did longtime Baylor women’s coach Kim Mulkey, 1,000-game winner Barbara Stevens of Bentley and three-time Final Four coach Eddie Sutton.

Kobe Bryant will be posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The five-time NBA champion died, aged 41, in a helicopter crash in January alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.

Los Angeles Lakers great Bryant retired in 2016; he was the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2008, was Finals MVP twice and earned 18 All-Star selections.

He was in the United States team that won Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Bryant's death was "unspeakable" and the league was keen to "honour" him.