If LaMelo Ball is truly serious about trying to play college basketball next year, there’s little doubt what his first step should be.

The youngest Ball brother must find an attorney capable of repairing the damage caused by his father’s unconventional decisions.

Experts in NCAA compliance told Yahoo Sports that LaVar Ball may have forfeited LaMelo’s hopes of attaining college eligibility by using him as a pitchman for the Big Baller Brand and by hiring an agent to shop him to overseas pro teams. LaMelo, 17, and older brother LiAngelo, 19, spent nearly four months playing for a professional Lithuanian club this past winter before returning to the U.S. and joining LaVar’s fledgling professional league, the Junior Ballers Association.

Those potential violations of NCAA rules are certain to draw scrutiny when the NCAA eligibility center evaluates LaMelo’s amateur status. If he is not certified as an amateur, the onetime five-star prospect’s only option would be to appeal the decision and hope that the NCAA shows leniency by having him repay some money or sit out a specified number of games instead of rendering him permanently ineligible.

“It’s going to be extremely challenging for him,” said David Ridpath, a former compliance director at Marshall who’s now a professor of sports administration at Ohio University. “I’m 100 percent sure he won’t be immediately eligible. There’s a chance the NCAA allows him to play with a lengthy suspension and some monetary penalties, but I’m still hedging my bets. There’s probably a 50 percent chance he won’t be able to play at all.”

Whether LaMelo can become an amateur again became relevant last week when he revealed he was taking a hiatus from his professional career. He first announced that he has enrolled at SPIRE Academy, an expensive Ohio prep school where he will play basketball and work toward earning his high school diploma. He then said Friday that he intends to play at least a year of college basketball and is targeting the likes of Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State.

Since SPIRE is not a member of Ohio’s governing body for high school athletics and does not compete against any schools who are, it can determine its own eligibility rules. Therefore the school can reap the benefits of taking a professional player and bonafide celebrity who stars on a reality show, drives a Lamborghini he received for his 16th birthday and boasts more than four million Instagram followers.

For a Division I college, getting LaMelo eligible as a freshman will be a far more onerous task. Some school surely will be desperate enough for elite talent to offer LaMelo a scholarship and help craft an argument on his behalf. But even lawyers who specialize in defending athletes in NCAA eligibility cases admit this one features more obstacles than most.

“I’ve never seen a confluence of so many issues in one case, but I still do think it’s workable,” attorney Don Jackson said. “Every one of these issues standing alone — agents, money from a shoe company, playing with a pro team, endorsements — I don’t think any of them would be an amateur career-ending infraction. When you have all of those issues colliding in one case, that makes it more complicated but I don’t think it makes it impossible.”

LaVar’s choices makes it difficult

LaMelo’s basketball journey appeared fairly straightforward as recently as 16 months ago when he began his junior year at Chino Hills High School.

The kid brother of Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball and then-UCLA forward LiAngelo Ball had already gained a massive social media following of his own thanks to viral videos of his impossibly deep 3-pointers, flashy no-look passes and unmistakable swagger. He intended to solidify his standing as one of the top guards in the 2019 class, follow in his brothers’ footsteps by heading to UCLA for a year and then declare for the NBA draft in 2020.

View photos LaVar Ball and BC Prienai coach Virginijus Seskus have a discussion during a game in Lithuania last season. (Getty) More

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