Lonzo Ball arrived in Prienai just in time for the rest of his family to depart. According to 15min.lt’s Donatas Urbonas, LaVar Ball will take LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball back to the U.S. on Sunday or Monday, leaving Prienu Vytautas without its two American teenagers as the club looks to avoid relegation from the Lithuanian (LKL) League over its final two games.

The Big Baller Brand CEO’s decision, like so many involving his sons’ basketball careers, was spurred by his tiff with a coach—in this case, Virginijus Seskus. The Ballfather frequently expressed his displeasure about  the lack of consistent on-court opportunities for Melo—the result of both a back injury and the 16-year-old’s own struggles with European pro basketball—and Gelo, prior to his own ankle sprain. He even went so far as to supplant Seskus on the sideline during Big Baller Brand-sponsored exhibitions.

“We’re not going to waste our time no more,” LaVar said.

Seskus aside, the Big Baller insisted that he was satisfied with his experience in Lithuania with BC Vytautas.

“I just didn’t get along with the coach,” he said.

For that reason, Melo won’t be returning to Vytautas next season.

Though the Ball family’s stay will end ahead of schedule, all parties appear to have gotten plenty out of the unusual arrangement. Vytautas is still fighting for its spot in the LKL, but is now doing so as a solvent club with the funds to properly pay its players and the larger profile to continue to grow.

On the other side, LaVar managed to wrangle professional experience for his sons, after bringing their amateur basketball careers to abrupt ends, along with greater exposure for the Big Baller Brand, by way of jersey sponsorships and a partnership with Vytautas to bring bottled water to America.

For Gelo, LaVar’s latest shift doesn’t change much. He was already bound for a return to America to prepare for the 2018 NBA draft, with an appearance at the Pro Basketball Combine at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida on the docket. LaVar “shut down” LiAngelo for the remainder of his lone Lithuanian season so as to keep his ankle injury from impeding his draft preparations.

What’s less certain is the path ahead for Melo. While the NBA is looking to end its “one-and-done” rule for draft eligibility, that change reportedly won’t come until 2020, when LaMelo would already be eligible by current rules.

In the meantime, Melo looks as though he will have to find someplace else to play outside of Prienai. In some respects, the youngest Ball brother, with his ball-handling ability and unlimited range, may have an easier time latching on with a richer club that has better resources for youth development, since he’s no longer part of a package deal with LiAngelo.

But between LaMelo’s own issues on and off the court, and the headaches LaVar can induce with his forms of interference, the family may have a tough time finding another team overseas to serve as a willing partner.

Of all the Balls who spent significant time in Lithuania, LaMelo Ball might have come out of the experience the worst. While LaVar Ball took advantage of different opportunities to expand awareness of and find new revenue streams for the Big Baller Brand, and LiAngelo Ball acquitted himself well on the court for Prienu Vytautas, Melo mostly struggled against grown men in the Lithuanian (LKL) League and battled back problems the rest of the time.

In nine games (one start), the 16-year-old averaged 6.6 points on 23.9 percent shooting with 1.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 turnovers in 13.9 minutes. Along the way, his frame and game were exposed for a combined lack of strength and discipline against seasoned pro overseas.

It’s no wonder, then, that 15min.lt’s Donatas Urbonas, who covered the Ball family’s saga in Lithuania extensively, saw Melo’s uneven performance under Vytautas coach Virginijus Seskus as potentially injurious to his once-glistening status as a top young basketball prospect.

“I’m kind of scared about Melo because he was not playing much this season,” Urbonas told For The Win’s Andrew Joseph. “He didn’t play at a high level, and Coach Seskus is never known for good practices. So, I’m afraid it was like a setback here for LaMelo.”

According to Urbonas, fans and observers in Lithuania “expected more from Melo” then they did from Gelo because “we saw more potential in Melo’s game.” Instead, what they got was a teenager who, for all his ball-handling talent, often looked overmatched and made lackadaisical decisions while exhibiting poor fundamentals.

That LaMelo wasn’t prepared to produce as a pro probably contributed to the absence of trust that Seskus placed in him and, in turn, the conflict that erupted between the coach and LaVar.

“Seskus probably thought that Melo, as a 16-year-old kid, wasn’t ready to play against these grown men in the elite league,” Urbonas said.

As a result, where once LaMelo might have attracted interest from high-profile European clubs without LiAngelo, who’s taking his chances in the 2018 NBA draft, Urbonas now sees a shrinking overseas market for the youngest Ball brother in his search for a place to ply his trade prior to the 2020 draft:

I’ve talked to a lot of people around Europe who cover the biggest clubs, and, as far as I know, the top clubs don’t consider having the Ball brothers or LaMelo on their team. But I feel like there might be another team like Prienai, which had nothing to lose, and might sign him. There’s the big plus because Lithuania got so much international attention. And I believe there are some clubs in Europe that want the similar attention, to raise their status, to raise their financial situation. They might try it and have the Ball family there.

Granted, the Prienai example comes with plenty of pitfalls. Though the Ball family helped the small-town club achieve the requisite short-term solvency to pay its players and complete its LKL schedule, Vytautas may well be relegated to the second-division NKL anyway. Seskus’ squad would have to win both of its remaining games—including a season-ending showdown with EuroLeague powerhouse Zalgiris—and have ninth-place Dzukija lose out to avoid being replaced at Lithuania’s top level by Vytis.

With that outcome, along with LaVar’s track record of conflict with his sons’ coaches and LaMelo’s own woes both on and off the court, pro teams the world over will think twice (and maybe a third time) before signing the wildest Ball child for the 2018-19 season.

Of all the members of the Ball family who made the trip to Lithuania at any point, LiAngelo Ball likely came out looking the best. Unlike LaVar Ball, Gelo didn’t pick fights with Prienu Vytautas coach Virginijus Seskus. And unlike LaMelo Ball, the 19-year-old wouldn’t have remained tethered to the bench due to ineffectiveness had he not succumbed to injury.

And while LiAngelo’s leap into the 2018 NBA draft may seem, shall we say, ambitious, he did acquit himself well on the court for the most part. In 15 Lithuanian (LKL) League games (seven starts), Gelo averaged 12.9 points and shot 40.7 percent from three in 22.0 minutes while showing steady improvement on the defensive end.

“Gelo played better than we expected – even the coaches and the players really respected Gelo,” 15min.lt’s Donatas Urbonas, who covered the Ball family extensively in Lithuania, told For The Win’s Andrew Joseph. “Coaches in Lithuania didn’t understand why there were so many skeptics. He might not be the NBA player, but still, he produced good numbers in the pro league.”

Gelo’s stats certainly beat Melo’s. The 16-year-old contributed 6.6 points on 23.9 percent shooting (22.0 percent from three) with 2.6 assists in 13.9 minutes across nine games (one start).

For Urbonas, that disparity helps to show just how much more valuable the Ball brothers’ time in Eastern Europe was for LiAngelo than it was for LaMelo.

“I think Gelo got the most out of this experience because he was playing a big number of minutes and contributing really good,” he said. “It was great for him.”

Great enough to get LiAngelo drafted? The odds seem slim, but by competing and improving against grown men in a legitimate overseas league, Gelo certainly didn’t hurt his draft stock at all.

The Ball family saga in Lithuania is officially over, but the framing of LaVar, LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball’s stint with and around Prienu Vytautas as a bizarre bit of basketball history has only just begun. Eric Pincus and Josh Martin did their part to put a bow on that chapter by inviting 15min.lt’s Donatas Urbonas—whom the Big Baller Brand CEO denounced as “freaky with his words”—onto “Hollywood Hoops” to discuss Gelo’s NBA draft stock, Melo’s prospects of landing with another European club, his interactions with LaVar and more.

The co-hosts also discuss the impact of Jesse Buss, the youngest son of the late Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss, on the Purple and Gold’s recent improvement in identifying and acquiring talent late in the draft.

To some observers, the Ball family’s stint in Lithuania might’ve looked like nearly four months of barely controlled chaos. LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball did not rescue Prienu Vytautas from its on-court struggles in the Lithuanian (LKL) League. Nor did LaVar Ball’s Big Baller Brand-backed investments in the club or his public diatribes against head coach Virginijus Seskus change its trajectory.

To the Ballfather, though, his clan’s bizarre trip to Eastern Europe was precisely what he thought it would be.

“Everything about the season went exactly as planned,” LaVar told BC Vytautas’ Erikas Kirvelaitis.

That includes the losing—be it in the LKL or the Big Baller Brand International Tournament—along with the injuries Melo and Gelo suffered, as well as the former’s struggles with defense and shot selection against grown men in a legitimate professional league.

“We accomplished what we were supposed to do, which was let Melo learn other aspects of the game and how people react to certain situations as far as being grown, working in the work field, which is understanding that people don’t really give an F about you,” LaVar explained. “They’re trying to get that check and that’s what it’s about.”

As for LiAngelo, his productive turn at Vytautas (12.9 points, 40.7 percent shooting from three)—and the potential boost to his NBA draft stock—was apparently what the Big Baller envisioned from the beginning.

“Gelo did exactly what he was supposed to do, which is perform the way he can, play basketball and have the scouts come over here from the Lakers or whatever and say, ‘Let’s take a look at this kid,'” he went on. “That’s all we wanted, just an opportunity.

“So everything that was supposed to happen, happened. And we good.”

LaVar also insisted that his sons didn’t need to develop as basketball players in Lithuania because they “already came over here developed” and that Seskus essentially wasted what the Father of Balls saw as a talent bounty equivalent to the lottery because the coach let his “personal feelings get in this [expletive].” Moreover, he pushed back against assertions that leaving Lithuania a week early was some sort of defeat, and that he had to pull his Gelo and Melo out.

“I’m not pulling my sons from anywhere,” he said. “There’s resistance when you gotta pull somebody. Follow me. You ain’t got to pull them to leave. So it’s good.”

LaVar did, however, cop to the reality that there was “some good, some bad” that attended the Ball family’s experience overseas. To the former, they got exposure for the Big Baller Brand, content for Facebook’s “Ball in the Family,” some highlights for LiAngelo and LaMelo in exhibitions—along with intriguing stats for Gelo in the LKL—and a branding partnership to bring Vytautas mineral water to America. To the latter, the move appeared to injure both Melo’s back and his ability to latch on with a better European club next season while pushing the public’s appetite for LaVar to the brink.

If that was, in fact, the plan all along, the Big Baller deserves a “Mission Accomplished” banner to hang up at the Ball Estate in Chino Hills.

LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball’s combined time in Lithuania seemed to be a basketball rollercoaster of sorts. They both shined in Big Baller Brand-sponsored exhibitions, endured their fair share of struggles in the Lithuanian (LKL) League, dealt with the depths of losing at Prienu Vytautas and ended their season overseas with injuries.

But during a recent visit with ESPN LA’s Allen Sliwa, LaVar Ball’s youngest sons spoke positively about their experiences in Eastern Europe.

“It was cool,” Melo said. “Nice little experience playing against grown men, better than high school, so it was a good experience.”

Gelo pointed to the difference in mentality between American amateurs and European pros as something to both adjust to and benefit from.

“They’re a lot older and they take the game more [seriously], like where I’m coming, coming from college so they older than those dudes and they take the games serious because that’s their job,” the 19-year-old said. “They play like every game depends on it, so it’s a lot more physical. I feel like I got better in that aspect of the game.”

LiAngelo played all of one exhibition game while at UCLA, but nonetheless noted that, when it comes to the physicality and professionalism of the European game, “you don’t get that in college.”

“You could stay there for four years, they can come back if they don’t do too good,” he continued. “But overseas is like, if you playing bad, you’re going to get cut. So everybody just gives it they all so it’s a lot more competitive.”

Playing half a world away against grown men might not have been the best thing for LaMelo, whose 16-year-old frame took a beating in Lithuania. But for LiAngelo, who averaged nearly 13 points per game and shot better than 40 percent from three in LKL play, the nearly four months he spent so far from Chino Hills may well have nudged his NBA draft stock upward, however slightly.

“It was close to what I expected,” Gelo said. “I came back better. I just went in focused and prepared and I did what I needed to do.”

Now, LiAngelo will spend his time preparing for the 2018 draft, between a trip to the Pro Basketball Combine in Bradenton, Florida later this month; potential auditions in front of individual teams and his own private workouts.

Melo, meanwhile, will gear up for his debut with the Los Angeles Ballers in the Junior Basketball Association on June 21—the same day as the draft, when LiAngelo will find out his NBA fate, one way or another.

No matter how things turn out for the two teenagers going forward, the trip to Lithuania will go down as a remarkable (and bizarre) chapter in not only their careers, but perhaps in the history of basketball.

LiAngelo Ball spent far more time on the court with Prienu Vytautas in Lithuania than he did with UCLA in NCAA play prior to jumping into the 2018 NBA draft. Where Gelo played just one exhibition game with the Bruins, prior to a shoplifting-induced early exit, the 19-year-old featured in 14 LKL contests along with a slew of Big Baller Brand-sponsored dates overseas.

So it wasn’t entirely surprising when Gelo, after his predraft workout with the Los Angeles Lakers, was asked to compare his two most recent basketball experiences and favored his time in Eastern Europe over his brief stop in Westwood.

“I think it prepared me a little better as far as going against grown men that care about they job everyday because if you’re not producing out there, they will fire you quick,” LiAngelo said. “So every game is hard out there.”

For Gelo, that pressure to perform helped to adjust his mentality, from merely playing a game to approaching basketball as a profession.

“If you’re not producing over there, they won’t ask no questions. They’ll just take you off the team like that,” he said. “You won’t get paid or whatever. You’ve got to come in every time ready to play your hardest and just produce.”

To hear him tell it, the style of play across the Atlantic also put LiAngelo in better position to compete for a spot in the Association than the NCAA would have.

“They play a lot more like pro style, so I improved a lot as far as setting screens and coming off of screens and sets and stuff,” he said. “As in, in college, you do a little bit of that but they don’t focus too much on it. So I prepared pretty good out there.”

As for whether he had any regrets about how things ended at UCLA, Gelo insisted that “I don’t really remember too much about that.”

“That’s a closed chapter in my life,” he continued, “so I just moved on, went overseas and just learned from over there and came back, brought my talents out here.”

Whether those lessons and skills will be enough to land LiAngelo among the 60 players picked in the draft on June 21 is unclear. Nor is there any way to confirm that he would have been better off staying at UCLA. Since the plan all along—for better or worse—was for Gelo to be one-and-done like Lonzo Ball had been, spending the remainder of his freshman year under suspension would not have served his professional ambitions.

Either way, as a 6-foot-5 guard with solid leaping ability but substandard speed and quickness, Gelo will have to prove through his predraft workouts that he can defend at a high level while knocking down outside shots.

The Lakers may just be the starting point for Gelo on the workout circuit. He is scheduled to audition for the Golden State Warriors next week, and has already interviewed with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Phoenix Suns.

And while teams are sure to inquire about the circumstances that landed LiAngelo half a world away, what he’s able to show from his sojourn to Lithuania may matter just as much, if not more.

LaMelo Ball didn’t say much during his impromptu remarks at the Junior Basketball Association’s media day on Monday. Melo did, however, make one thing clear: he’s happy his initial stint in Europe is over.

“I’m glad I’m back,” the 16-year-old said. “Europe wasn’t for me.”

This won’t come as any surprise to followers of Facebook’s “Ball in the Family.” Throughout Season 2 and into the Season 3 premiere, LaMelo looked, acted and spoke as if he were uncomfortable—if not downright miserable—in Lithuania, between foreign food, an uncomfortably cold climate, a coach who played him sparingly when healthy, a back injury that limited his availability and teammates at Prienu Vytautas who pranked him.

Perhaps, then, a return to the U.S. to serve as the face of the JBA will help Melo rediscover his signature spirit and style both on and off the court. But such a mindset may not bode well for his pro prospects overseas after the league’s season ends in late summer.

LiAngelo Ball and LaMelo Ball may have made a bigger splash off the court in Lithuania than they did on it for Prienu Vytautas. Their arrival occasioned a flood of attention on the Eastern European nation and an influx of capital for the cash-strapped club in Prienai.

None of this came as a shock to Arnoldas Kulboka, a Lithuanian-born sharpshooter who’s entered into the 2018 NBA draft.

“When they came there, they were like celebrities,” Kulboka, who spent this past season in Italy’s Serie A league with Betaland Capo d’Orlando, told HoopsHype’s Bryan Kalbrosky. “People expected a lot from them. They went to one of the worst teams in the league and had some big problems with the club.”

Gelo appeared to catch his stride on the court, averaging 12.6 points and shooting 41.5 percent from three in the Lithuanian (LKL) League. Melo, though, struggled to find his at all before succumbing to a back injury. He wound up contributing 6.5 points and 2.4 assists while shooting 26.8 percent from the field and 25.0 percent from three.

Those are poor numbers, to be sure, but nothing out of the ordinary for a spindly 16-year-old competing against grown men some 6,000 miles from home.

“People expected they would be a little bit better. But you can’t expect too much from kids out of high school against grown men and professional basketball players,” Kulboka said. “You have to play defense. You have to play physical.

“LaMelo is so young. I don’t think he was ready. LiAngelo was doing pretty okay.”

The brothers did put up some eye-popping stat lines: a 40-point triple-double for Melo, a 72-point outburst for Gelo. But as Kulboka, a projected second-round pick, noted, those performances didn’t come in the rough-and-tumble LKL, but rather in Big Baller Brand-sponsored exhibition games against lesser competition.

“Sometimes it was very good and people thought they were scoring so much against pro teams but those games were actually against kids their age in friendly games,” he said.

LaMelo should have many more opportunities to pile up numbers against players his age during the Junior Basketball Association’s inaugural season, starting with the Los Angeles Ballers’ season opener against New York on June 21. Then again, as the youngest player in LaVar Ball’s upstart league, with a travel schedule that will cause him to criss-cross the country, Melo could be in for some growing pains here at home, too.

The inaugural champions—players and coaches alike—of the Junior Basketball Association will be rewarded with brand-new luxury cars. But there will be a prize of sorts on offer from LaVar Ball for some who may or may not be on the ultimate winner in August.

According to SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell, the JBA will send its top 10 players overseas to compete against European professionals after the season ends later this summer. The league had previously noted that such an opportunity for global exposure would be available for its best performers, but had not indicated the number of roster spots available.

So far, the contenders for those spots should include LaMelo Ball, L.A.’s Niles Malone and Greg Floyd Jr., New York’s Calvin Brown, Dallas’ Caleal Walker, Chicago’s Kezo Brown and Deon Lyle, Dallas’ Curtis Hollis, Seattle’s Jerrel Springer, and Atlanta’s Nigel Chaney and Corey “Big Jelly” Boyd.

And that’s just from the first week of action. More names figure to emerge as the schedule proceeds.

The competition for those European tickets should be fierce. Though the JBA is granting all of its players exposure in person at real arenas and online through Facebook, that trip across the pond will be key for those hoping to find further gainful employment as basketball players anywhere on the map.