LaMelo Ball is in his fourth NBA season but is having the same troubles from the past years. He’s not been healthy for more than two months of the season and has been out with an ankle injury since November. Despite that information being publicly available, an Australian fan decided to fly to Charlotte to watch LaMelo play while he was ruled out. He held up a sign about the same and was seen on the TV broadcast.
This young Hornets fan flew all the way from Australia to watch LaMelo Ball play.
Unfortunately, Melo is still out with an ankle injury 😕
(via @HornetsOnBally)pic.twitter.com/3o92xxH0wM
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) January 3, 2024
It’s always good to be sympathetic to children who go out of their way to watch their star players play, especially when they wouldn’t get the chance otherwise as a foreign national. But this child had to have either booked these tickets way in advance or just ignored the injury report, as Ball has been out with an injury for over a month now.
We’ve seen other fans around the world go through adversity in these situations. Last year, many kids came from overseas to watch Stephen Curry play, but Steve Kerr decided to load manage Curry last minute, leaving the kids devastated. This isn’t the same, as LaMelo has been injured and nobody would’ve expected him to play.
It’s a shame if the Hornets fan had a pre-planned trip where he was looking forward to seeing LaMelo play for months. At least he got to witness a rare Hornets win, as they shocked the Sacramento Kings to pull that 111-104 win off.
The Hornets Are Stuck In Their Ways
The Charlotte Hornets have been one of the league’s most forgettable franchises for years. Outside the Kemba Walker era where the guard dragged them to the playoffs just to be swept in the first round, the Hornets haven’t achieved anything in the last few decades. There aren’t any notable Hornets draft picks that have become stars in the NBA or any tangible success for the franchise to feel good about.
They were contending for playoff spots in the first two years of LaMelo’s career but tanked unsuccessfully for Victor Wembanyama last season. LaMelo was hurt, so the tanking wasn’t hard. That seems to be happening this season as well, with LaMelo not playing dooming the franchise’s competitive chances.
They’re expected to let Miles Bridges go next year while having had players like Ball and Mark Williams on the injury list for large chunks of the season. They let a promising coach like James Borrego go to get a veteran like Steve Clifford to shape the players. None of it has worked, and the team continues treading the bottom of the East.
There’s no easy fix to their problems. LaMelo is arguably the biggest star they’ve had in years, so his good health would be a major competitive bonus. But at this point, it looks like spending every season waiting for a healthy LaMelo is holding this franchiser back more than anything.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
