Lonzo Anderson Ball (born October 27, 1997) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A point guard, he played college basketball for one season with the UCLA Bruins, earning consensus first-team All-American honors before the Los Angeles Lakers selected him with the second overall pick of the 2017 NBA draft. He was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team in 2018.
As a senior at Chino Hills High School in 2016, Ball was awarded multiple national high school player of the year honors, and led his team, alongside his brothers LiAngelo and LaMelo, to an undefeated 35–0 record and the consensus national top ranking. As a college freshman in 2016–17, he led the nation in assists and broke the UCLA record for the most assists in a season. Ball also won the Wayman Tisdale Award as the top freshman in the nation.
As an NBA rookie with the Lakers, his playing time was limited by shoulder and knee injuries, and he was sidelined for much of his second season after an ankle injury. He was traded at the end of the season to the New Orleans Pelicans in a trade package for Anthony Davis. He played two seasons with the Pelicans before joining the Chicago Bulls in a sign-and-trade deal, but a persistent knee injury sidelined him for the majority of his tenure with the team, with him missing the entirety of the 2022–23 and 2023–24 seasons. After the 2024–25 season, Ball was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Ball was born in Anaheim, California, to LaVar and Tina Ball, who were both former college basketball players. The 6-foot-6-inch (1.98 m) Ball started playing basketball at the age of two. He idolized LeBron James, who he began following around age six while James was a first-year NBA player with Cleveland. Ball grew up with his younger brothers, LiAngelo and LaMelo. Until they reached high school, the trio played together on teams coached by their father. Ball played basketball at Chino Hills High School in Chino Hills, California. As a junior in 2014–15, he averaged 25 points, 11 rebounds, 9.1 assists, 5 blocks, and 5 steals. In his senior year, he led the school to a 35–0 record and a state title, and the Huskies were ranked the consensus No. 1 team in the nation. His younger brothers, junior LiAngelo and freshman LaMelo, were also on the team, as well as his cousin Andre. Ball averaged a triple-double with averages of 23.9 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 11.7 assists per game. He received national honors, including the Naismith Prep Player of the Year, Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year, USA Today Boys Basketball Player of the Year, and Mr. Basketball USA.
By the end of his senior year, Ball was rated as a consensus five-star recruit in the 2016 high school class. He was ranked No. 4 overall recruit in the 2016 class behind Harry Giles, Josh Jackson and Jayson Tatum by both Rivals.com and ESPN, while Scout.com ranked him at No. 7 despite his previous ranking of several months as the No. 1 player in the country. In November 2015, he signed a National Letter of Intent to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and play for the Bruins.
As a freshman at UCLA in 2016–17, he was one of 50 players named to the preseason watch list for the John R. Wooden Award, given annually to the top college player in the nation. Ball's vision and passing skills led UCLA's rise up the national rankings, as he and fellow freshman T. J. Leaf helped the Bruins bounce back from a 15–17 record from the year before to a 31–5 record. Ball led the nation in assists and transformed the Bruins into the top scoring offense in the country. In his first collegiate game against Pacific, he had 19 points, 11 assists, and eight rebounds.
Later in the year, Ball was named the most valuable player (MVP) of the Wooden Legacy tournament, after he led UCLA to a win over Texas A&M in the championship game. He remained on the Wooden Award list in midseason, when he was also joined by Leaf, as UCLA was one of just five schools with two candidates on the list.
On February 4, 2017, in a 107–66 blowout win against the Washington Huskies, Ball had 22 points, six rebounds, and five assists. With close to two dozen NBA executives in attendance, the game matched Ball against the Huskies' Markelle Fultz, who were among the nation's top point guards and projected to be among the top picks in the 2017 NBA draft. Fultz scored 25 points in an even matchup between the two freshmen. In the Bruins' regular season finale, Ball had a career-high 14 assists in a 77–68 win over Washington State, when he also broke Gary Payton's 30-year-old Pac-12 season record for assists by a freshman. UCLA was seeded No. 3 in the NCAA tournament, and won their opening game 97–80 over Kent State. Ball had 15 points and three assists to surpass Larry Drew II's school record for most assists in a season. In the second round, he came close to a triple-double with 18 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists in a 79–67 win over Cincinnati. All of his assists came in the second half, when UCLA overcame a three-point halftime deficit after scoring a season-low 30 points in the first half. The Bruins were eliminated in the Sweet 16, losing 86–75 to Kentucky. Ball had 10 points, eight assists, and four turnovers in the loss, while Wildcats point guard De'Aaron Fox scored 39 points for an NCAA tournament freshman record. Ball strained his hamstring in the game but played through it and was limping in the second half. Ball did not offer it as an excuse for being outplayed. After the game, he announced that he would declare for the 2017 NBA draft, where he was generally projected to be a top-3 pick.
For the season, Ball averaged 14.6 points, 7.6 assists, and 6.0 rebounds. He was the only player in the nation to average at least 14 points, six assists, and six rebounds, and was the first player in the conference since California's Jason Kidd in 1993–94 to average at least 14 points, seven assists, and six rebounds. His 274 assists also passed Kidd (272) for the second-most in a season by a Pac-12 player, behind only Ahlon Lewis (294) of Arizona State in 1997–98. Ball made 55.1 percent of his field goal attempts and 41.2 of his three-point attempts to become the first NCAA Division I player since 1992–93 to make at least 70 percent from the 2-point range and 40 percent from the 3-point range. He was a unanimous first-team All-American, earning honors from the Associated Press, United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), and Sporting News. Additionally, he was awarded the Wayman Tisdale Award by the USBWA as the top freshman in the nation. Ball was the only freshman that year to be a finalist for the Wooden Award, Naismith College Player of the Year, and Oscar Robertson Trophy. He was also voted Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, named first-team All-Pac-12 along with teammates Leaf and Bryce Alford, and received honorable mention for the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team.
Los Angeles Lakers (2017–2019)
Ball was selected with the second overall pick of the 2017 NBA draft by his hometown team the Los Angeles Lakers. It was the third straight year they had the No. 2 pick. He and Brandon Ingram, their second overall pick from the previous year, headlined a young core for the Lakers. D'Angelo Russell, their No. 2 pick in 2015, was traded days earlier, partly to clear the way for their newly drafted point guard. Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson billed Ball as "the new face of the Lakers." During the 2017 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Ball was named the league MVP after averaging 16.3 points, 9.3 assists, 7.7 rebounds, 2.5 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game. He had two triple-doubles, the first in Vegas since 2008 and the first ever in Vegas by a rookie. He had four games with 10 or more assists, becoming the first in league history to have more than 10 assists in more than one game; his 9.3 assist average was also a league record.