In a sit down on the WAE Show, Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball revealed his biggest “welcome to the NBA” moment as a second-year player. Ball described a scene in 2018 (his last season with the Lakers) when LeBron James torched him and his Lakers teammates in practice.
“I never seen an individual do that on a basketball court,” said Ball. “LeBron just dominated the whole practice once he turned it on. Going through the middle, windmilling like in half-court, going baseline tomahawk, half-court threes. We was playing to 21, [LeBron] had 21 and we had 7. That was the first time I was like, damn, that’s crazy.”
.@Zo2_ speaks on @KingJames in practice 😂 pic.twitter.com/Xdb7sJAr3e
— The WAE Show (@TheWAEShow) July 19, 2024
After being drafted 2nd overall in 2017, Lonzo was given big expectations from the start and he was viewed as the future of the team during his rookie campaign. While he performed admirably with averages of 10.0 points, 6.4 assists, and 1.6 steals per game, he was only on the Lakers for two seasons before being traded to the Pelicans as part of the deal for Anthony Davis.
LeBron James entered the fold in Lonzo’s second and final season with the team. Before Davis’ arrival, he played out the 2018-19 campaign with a young core that included Lonzo, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, and Kyle Kuzma. It was during this season that the legendary practice occurred, and Lonzo experienced first-hand just how good and talented LeBron really was.
Even after over 15 years of dominance, LeBron was torching everyone on the daily, and every Lakers player quickly discovered why he had become such an iconic superstar on the court.
While that campaign, and that stretch as a whole, was nightmarish for the Lakers as a team, LeBron more than delivered on his end of the bargain with an average stat line of 27.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 8.3 assists per game on 51% shooting.
Today, LeBron James is still going strong for the Purple and Gold and after leading them to the championship in 2020 he has cemented his legacy as one of the best to ever wear the uniform. As he prepares to enter his 22nd season in the league, he’ll get the honor of enduring the process alongside his son, Bronny, whom the Lakers drafted 55th overall this summer.
As for Lonzo, his career has been in decline since his injury on the Bulls. After a stint with the Pelicans, ‘Zo became a core member of the Bulls rotation and helped them secure the top seed in the East in the first half of his first season there. Sadly, Lonzo would suffer an injury that season which he has yet to fully recover from.
As of the time of this writing, it’s been two full seasons since Lonzo’s last game and there were doubts that he would ever play again. Now that he’s on the mend, optimism is rising that he can return at some point next season for the Bulls.
Either way, Lonzo has already proven himself as a pro, and despite LeBron James torching him in practice back in the day his skills as a two-way point guard make him a valuable asset across the league.
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