Source: David Berding / Getty
Frustrations with star guard LaMelo Ball are starting to grow for Hornets fans, especially with the latest bit of poor offseason publicity for the franchise that involves him.
WSOC-TV in Charlotte reported Tuesday that Ball and the Hornets are being sued by a woman, Tamaria McRae, who claims that he ran over her son’s foot when he tried to go up to his car to ask for an autograph. She told WSOC investigative reporter Jason Stoogenke that she was planning on filing a claim to Ball’s insurance company, but that the police report was missing crucial information, including his insurance information. The lawsuit against the Hornets is focused on the lack of a safer environment for the team’s “Purple and Teal Day at the Hive” event, which is where this incident happened this past October. McRae is reportedly seeking as much as $25,000 in damages.
While this is all too familiar for Hornets fans with the issues the team has had off the court in the last few offseason, this is not where the frustrations with Ball stem from, especially with this being a developing situation. That comes from what he has or, more so, hasn’t done on the court due to a lack of availability. After playing 75 games in his all-star season in 2021-22, he has played just 58 games in the last two years, including just 22 this past season. With how much he has been out of the lineup despite participating in shootarounds and his refusal to wear ankle braces to help prevent ankle injuries that have plagued him in recent years, people are starting to question his motivation to play and if he has what it takes to be the leader that this team was hoping he would be.
On Thursday, Terrence Oglesby, the analyst for Hornets Live on Bally Sports, joined the ‘Mac & Bone Show’ and spoke about where he stands with LaMelo Ball right now. “He needs to show that he wants to play. That’s the thing that’s scary. You invest that much money in a guy who now is in trouble off the court. So it’s like, what are we doing here, LaMelo? Like, you’re getting paid max money. You’ve never won at any level of basketball in his entire life. And I’m not trying to belittle the guy, but he really hasn’t. If you look back all the way to high school, I think they won a state championship in California when his older brother was on the team. Then he leads there and he goes to Lithuania. They never won. They kicked him off the team there. He comes back, he tries to play in this league that his dad created. That was a joke of a league. And then he goes to Spire Academy. They don’t win anything. Goes to Australia. He was on the worst team in the top division there. Come to Charlotte, he puts up good numbers and he gets thumped by 50 in the play in. So I’m curious, when is all this hype going to turn into wins? Because you get paid big time money like that, you need to win games. I’m just as frustrated as you guys are.”
To hear Oglesby’s full comments on Ball and his comments on some possible targets for the Hornets in the draft, be sure to listen to the full interview below and make sure you subscribe to the Mac & Bone Show Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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