LaVar Ball is confident in his sons’ abilities to be game-changing basketball talents. As such, it should come as no surprise that he firmly believes that his youngest boy, LaMelo, deserves to be starting for the Charlotte Hornets.
In a conversation with Melissa Rohlin of Fox Sports, LaVar made the case that LaMelo deserves way more playing time than the 26 minutes he got against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night:
“Tell me, have you ever seen a marquee guy, a marquee guy that you promoting in all of this ‘brothers going up against each other,’ and he don’t start?”
“I never seen that before in my life. That’s like telling Michael Jackson, ‘Hey man, you coming on second.'”
In that Friday night matchup against brother Lonzo, LaMelo put up 12 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists.
One day later, against the Atlanta Hawks, he became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double when he finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, while shooting 9-of-13 from the field in 31 minutes off the bench.
Even LeBron James was impressed with the effort.
“I live my life and I know what I’m capable of, so stuff like this doesn’t move me like that,” LaMelo said after recording the triple-double, per ESPN. “I know that’s supposed to happen.”
The big issue for LaVar and LaMelo is that the two guards ahead of him on the depth chart, Terry Rozier and Devonte’ Graham, are both having solid 2021 campaigns thus far. The latter is leading the team in assists with 6.4 per game, while the former is averaging 20 points per game while shooting 43.7 percent from behind the arc.
More likely than not, LaMelo will eventually find his way into the starting lineup. After all, Charlotte drafted him to be the franchise’s superstar of the future. For now, however, his time hasn’t come yet. And no matter how much LaVar complains, nothing will change that.
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