Written by Myron Medcalf at ESPN.com
In a chaotic scene Wednesday, officials and police officers blocked doors and ordered a police barricade outside the Cashman Center because of fire-code concerns an hour before LaVar Ball’s Big Ballers squad, led by his son and elite 2019 recruit LaMelo Ball, was scheduled to face top recruit Zion Williamson and SC Supreme.
The Adidas Uprising Summer Championships game was played despite the fear that it would be canceled.
Fans stood six and seven rows deep hours before Williamson and Ball were scheduled to play. Dozens of people were waiting to get into the building when event officials and officers banned anyone else from entering the building an hour before tipoff.
Chris Rivers, the organizer of this week’s championships in Las Vegas, said that local police gave the green light for the AAU teams to play only one minute before tipoff.
“Unreal. Never seen anything like it,” Kansas coach Bill Self, who was on hand for the game, told ESPN.
Best environment I’ve ever seen for an AAU game. LaMelo Ball going against Zion Williamson tipping shortly.
In addition to Self, NBA players Damian Lillard, Thon Maker, Jamal Murray, Andrew Wiggins and LaMelo’s oldest brother, Lonzo Ball, were on hand to watch SC Supreme’s 104-92 victory.
LeBron James had planned to watch the Ball-Williamson showdown courtside, but he did not get out of his vehicle after he arrived, instead deciding to avoid the frenzy after a conversation with people associated with the Adidas Uprising Summer Championships, a source told ESPN.com.
James arrived with several people before choosing to skip an event that already had been dealing with overcrowding and local police threatening to shut it down, per the source.
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