Leave it to Charles Barkley to bash a sophomore in high school who had himself an incredible 92-point game.
LaMelo Ball, a star at Chino Hills High School in Southern California and UCLA recruit, scored 92 points in his team’s 146-123 win over Los Osos High School Tuesday night. Ball, the younger brother of UCLA star Lonzo Ball, took a whopping 61 shots and made 37 of them. Barkley, however, was unimpressed by the 15-year-old’s lack of commitment on defense.
“You know, the kid was waiting at half court most of the game,” Barkley said on the Mike and Mike Show Wednesday, as transcribed by Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald. “Never went back on defense. So, I had a problem with it, to be honest with you. Go look at the game. The kid waited at the other end of the court and just every time the other team shot the ball, they just threw to him at half-court or three-quarters of the court. I have a serious problem with that, to be honest with you.”
Barkley wasn’t the only one who criticized Ball. Los Osos coach Dave Smith called the 92-point performance “embarrassing.”
“That’s wrong,” Smith told Eric Sondehimer of the Los Angeles Times. “It goes against everything CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) stands for. The Ball boys are very talented and great players, but it’s embarrassing to high school athletics. I’ve been coaching for 35 years, and we’ve turned high school athletics into individualism.
“It’s amazing to watch a kid score that many points. But it’s tough to say that’s what CIF athletics is about.”
LiAngelo Ball, another brother of LaMelo and Lonzo, missed the game with an ankle injury, which left more shots for LaMelo. LiAngelo, a senior, scored 72 in a game earlier this season.
We understand the points both Barkley and Smith were trying to make, but the kid is 15. As long as his teammates don’t have an issue with him taking so many shots, he has nothing to apologize for. Scoring nearly 100 points is remarkable no matter how it happens. You can see highlights from the game here.
