La La Anthony celebrates son Kiyan Anthony's cousin Mekai Vazquez's graduation with a house party

There’s a life beyond basketball and the glitz of the entertainment industry for TV star La La Anthony and her son, Kiyan Anthony. Nothing exemplifies this more than La La Anthony’s recent Instagram stories, where she celebrated her nephew and Kiyan’s cousin, Mekai Vasquez, as he graduated from high school.

La La shared the videos from the party on her Instagram stories on Wednesday. She captioned one:

“Congratulations @mekaivazquez_!!!!”

Vazquez and Kiyan are pretty close, with their social media replete with posts documenting moments they’ve spent together. Vazquez tagged along during Kiyan’s vacation trip to Japan following his EYBL 2024 summer tourney.

Kiyan Anthony is one of the most notable basketball prospects in the 2025 class. One of the more famous NBA legacies heading to college this year, he is the son of 10-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony.

Despite the advantage of having an NBA legend for a father, many would agree that Kiyan has been able to forge his own path and has given a unique definition to his career.

A product of Long Island Lutheran High School, Kiyan is the top-ranked New York prospect, per the On3 Industry Ranking. He is also the No. 11 shooting guard in his class, a position he has consistently justified with top performance at the biggest stages.

Kiyan Anthony’s final moments with the LuHi Crusaders

Before pulling the curtain on his high school career, Kiyan Anthony led LuHi to the Throne Hoops National Championship. He pulled off an incredible performance at the championship game. Scoring 25 points with three assists and five rebounds, he led his team to a hard-fought 71-68 victory and earned the MVP honors.

Also in March, he fell just short of securing the EYBL Scholastic title for the Crusaders, losing in the final against Link Academy. Notwithstanding, he contributed 16 points to LuHi’s efforts as it lost 74-71. Similarly, his 22 points were not enough as the Crusaders fell to an 80-77 defeat at the hands of Prolific Prep at the Chipotle Nationals.

Kiyan Anthony will continue his career at college later this year when he enrolls at Syracuse. The standout guard received offers from multiple college programs, including Tennessee, Florida State, Seton Hall, Memphis, Michigan, Illinois, Pittsburgh and Indiana.

Eventually, his choice of Syracuse was hardly surprising given his ties to the program through his dad, who played for the Orange from 2002 to 2003.

Syracuse fans will be hoping Kiyan Anthony repeats his dad’s record of winning the national championship with the program.

About the author

Kayode is a College and High School Sports writer at Sportskeeda since June 2023. Hailing from Nigeria, he has an undergraduate degree in Linguistics and African Languages, and has previously had stints as an entertainment and politics writer for around 7 months. Adept at creating content around historical perspectives, he strives to report stories based only on verified information. His mantra is - truth is always more important than sensationalism.

A fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team, Kayode admires how Nick Saban developed talent at the team and delivered consistent results, and hopes that the post-Saban era is just as fruitful. He is thoroughly impressed by Johnny Manziel’s talent, and feels that Shedeur Sanders is massively underrated. Nick Saban is his all-time favorite college coach.

While Kayode believes there is little to separate college and mainstream sports, pro leagues absorbing the best athletes leads to their quality being higher. Witnessing the Colorado Buffaloes’ hot streak at start the 2023 football season was one of his all-time favorite college sports moments.

When not writing, Kayode enjoys reading and watching sports documentaries. His most recent watch was "Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In."

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Edited by R. Elahi