Hi Enoch
I don't think you have any chance of pulling off the gear lever. It's all in one with the ball and held in with a circlip, as well as being connected at the bottom to the linkage.
What you need to do is undo the bolts shown here:
Then remove the spring clip on the linkage arrowed and push out the pin in the linkage from the side:
After you've done that you can just lift the whole assembly off the back of the gearbox (it locates on the 2 pins shown each side of the linkage in the second picture).
Matt