LaVar Ball recently sat down for what was an explosive interview with VladTV, which he used to address a wide range of topics. This included grave financial accusations against Jermaine Jackson, LaMelo Ball’s current manager. According to LaVar Ball, Jackson has been guilty of trying to profit off of the $20,000,000-worth Charlotte Hornets star. Melo’s father explained that Jackson has been supposedly involving his son in multiple brand deals that he himself owned, or stood to profit from.
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This included Jackson’s involvement with Melo’s LaFrance clothing brand, which also made splashes in the luxury watch and skin-care industry. LaVar claimed that Jermaine Jackson had fooled Melo into believing that he would own part of the brands that he was promoting. However, that proved to be untrue.
LaVar Ball believes that LaMelo is being scammed by his manager
Jackson is said to have supported Melo’s career, especially when he initially ran into trouble with the NBA. Melo had become a professional in Lithuania back in high school which eventually resulted in his stint with the SPIRE Academy, where he played under Jackson.
However, LaVar has now suggested that the former Detroit Pistons star is guilty of conning LaMelo in multiple ways. Apart from involving the 22-year-old in a signature-drink for a brand that he himself owned, Ball had other accusations against the former basketball player:
“And’s what they doing, the GJ guy [Jermaine Jackson]…I know the back things he is doing, where he putting the companies in his wife’s name and stuff like this and telling Melo….Melo, how are you an All-Star, Rookie of the Year, and you have a drink, a drink that’s out called ‘DRNX’, nobody knows about it. Raggedy, Melo should be Powerade, Gatorade or something big like that. But this guy, they gave him some money upfront, I am talking about the JJ guy, and he convinced Melo that you have a signature-flavor drink. You know what the signature flavor is? I like Grape, oh, that’s your signature flavor. Melo don’t own DRNX, but they tell him you got the paperwork signed. Son you don’t own none of this stuff man, so you basically, they trying to fool you thinking you own some things.”
LaVar suggested that instead of trying to further LaMelo’s brand, Jackson is guilty of trying to create his own. This involves a stint with LaFrance, which according to Bleacher Report has not been related to merely clothing:
“It’s like, Melo got his brand, and this guy is trying to create another brand that he owns, to have a brand come out, like a clothing brand. Like Melo, they using your money to buy your stuff and putting their tab on there and buying their stuff….The JJ guy was trying to run a clothing thing, LaFrance, which is Melo’s stuff. Now, Puma has collaborated with Melo with the LF. Not good, but better of the two evils.”
LaVar claimed that Puma’s collaboration with the company was a better outcome, describing it as “the lesser of the two evils.” Still, this was after initially trying to run the brand on its own, while using LaMelo’s money in order to fund the company. That is at least, according to LaVar Ball, who has previously made a range of questionable statements, even during the interview at hand.
LaMelo Ball is not the only NBA athlete to have been scammed
While LaVar revealed quite a few harrowing details about LaMelo’s overall experience working with Jermaine Jackson, he is not the only NBA athlete who has been scammed previously. The list includes the likes of Jrue Holiday, Chandler Parsons, and Courtney Lee.
The three had been scammed by a group of conmen off a total of $13,000,000. While Holiday was told that he was simply purchasing a stake in a company involved in luxury goods and home renovations, others were forced into deeper scams.
The group apparently ran multiple schemes which included selling fake life insurance policies and even a professional basketball team. The scam was masterminded by a former Morgan Stanley advisor Darryl Cohen who is now looking at imprisonment for up to 20 years, according to MARCA.
