Re: LaMelo Ball
Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2026 9:11 pm
I went on line and watched a bunch of prior LaMello interviews. He’s very different from Anthony Edwards. Ball is not a talker and not what I’d call a charismatic character like Ant. But he was not nearly as cryptic in any of the prior interview as he was in yesterday’s introductory press conference. No telling what was going on but I have a theory.
Put yourself in LaMello’s shoes. You’ve spent your entire 6-year NBA career with one team. You like the city and love your teammates. You were happy and comfortable there after getting shipped off to far-away places as a teenager by your bombastic father. Note that you can see how much LaMello loved his teammates watching some of the prior videos of him interacting with them during interviews and in games. Every person who has commented refers to him having had a great relationship with his teammates in Charlotte. Your last season in that city, playing with those guys you were close to, was your team’s best season and easily the best season of your career. You were the engine that drove your team’s success as the best offense in the League the second half of the season. You were the unmistakable key to the team’s turnaround after the team had been languishing as a lottery team going nowhere. Then suddenly that team you led to its best season in many years trades you.
That’s a long way of saying I think LaMello is understandably a bit down over this whole thing. We often forget these guys are human beings and LaMello is still a very young guy. Here’s a pretty telling response LaMello gave at the presser in response to a question about him getting traded here: “I feel like it’s God’s plan,” a soft-spoken Ball said on Tuesday at his introductory news conference in response to a question about getting traded here. “I just leave it up to Him, and I just feel extremely blessed.” That sounds like a guy who’s a bit down about being traded but is in the process of getting his head around it and turning it into a positive. He’s just quite there yet so he understandably and wisely said very little.
Think about all the huge egos in the League - players who spew word salads and think we should all be hanging on every word. Think about all the long-winded cliches and programmed BS that comes out of the mouths of professional athletes. Against that backdrop, my sense of unease when I first watched the press conference has turned to admiration. What we saw was a somewhat introverted guy who’s hurting a bit and still processing what happened. As a result, he said very little but importantly made sure his few words were all positive. As we’ve all read, LaMello then proceeded to buy lunch for the entire business staff. I’ll happily accept short positive responses laced with expressions of faith and genuine acts of giving any day over what we so often get or see from professional athletes. Meanwhile, we have Anthony Edwards to keep us entertained.
Put yourself in LaMello’s shoes. You’ve spent your entire 6-year NBA career with one team. You like the city and love your teammates. You were happy and comfortable there after getting shipped off to far-away places as a teenager by your bombastic father. Note that you can see how much LaMello loved his teammates watching some of the prior videos of him interacting with them during interviews and in games. Every person who has commented refers to him having had a great relationship with his teammates in Charlotte. Your last season in that city, playing with those guys you were close to, was your team’s best season and easily the best season of your career. You were the engine that drove your team’s success as the best offense in the League the second half of the season. You were the unmistakable key to the team’s turnaround after the team had been languishing as a lottery team going nowhere. Then suddenly that team you led to its best season in many years trades you.
That’s a long way of saying I think LaMello is understandably a bit down over this whole thing. We often forget these guys are human beings and LaMello is still a very young guy. Here’s a pretty telling response LaMello gave at the presser in response to a question about him getting traded here: “I feel like it’s God’s plan,” a soft-spoken Ball said on Tuesday at his introductory news conference in response to a question about getting traded here. “I just leave it up to Him, and I just feel extremely blessed.” That sounds like a guy who’s a bit down about being traded but is in the process of getting his head around it and turning it into a positive. He’s just quite there yet so he understandably and wisely said very little.
Think about all the huge egos in the League - players who spew word salads and think we should all be hanging on every word. Think about all the long-winded cliches and programmed BS that comes out of the mouths of professional athletes. Against that backdrop, my sense of unease when I first watched the press conference has turned to admiration. What we saw was a somewhat introverted guy who’s hurting a bit and still processing what happened. As a result, he said very little but importantly made sure his few words were all positive. As we’ve all read, LaMello then proceeded to buy lunch for the entire business staff. I’ll happily accept short positive responses laced with expressions of faith and genuine acts of giving any day over what we so often get or see from professional athletes. Meanwhile, we have Anthony Edwards to keep us entertained.