LaVar Ball Files Trademark for Junior Basketball Association
The father of Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball filed a trademark application last week seeking the rights to name a new basketball league, documents show.
According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, LaVar Ball has filed to use the name "Junior Basketball Association."
The applicant for the trademark, filed Jan. 12, is Big Baller Brand of Chino Hills, Calif., and is seeking to use the JBA name on "athletic apparel, namely, shirts, pants, jackets, footwear, hats and caps, athletic uniforms."
Ball also filed a trademark application on a logo, which shows a silhouette of Lonzo Ball dunking.
The mark has eight stars in the background on the left of the silhouette with Junior basketball on the first line and association under the graphic.
Ball has said he wanted to fund a league where players who have NBA dreams can have an option to make money and not go to college. Currently, all NBA draft eligible players must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft.
Ball contents the JBA will pay lower-ranked prospects $3,000 a month and the highest-ranked prospects as much as $10,000 per month.
The move came after Ball pulled one of his sons, LaMelo, out of high school in California and other son LiAngelo out of UCLA after he was suspended for shoplifting in China. Both are now playing overseas in Lithuania.
