One projected NBA lottery pick is apparently not a Big Baller.
An unnamed draft prospect who is projected to go in the lottery of next week’s NBA Draft recently refused to work out with the Charlotte Hornets, local sports anchor Mike Lacett of Carolina Sports Live reported on Wednesday. Lacett adds that the prospect’s move came out of a desire not to play with Hornets star LaMelo Ball.
Charlotte owns the No. 4 overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft. They had the third-worst record in the league this season at a nauseating 19-63 and slightly underperformed those odds in the draft lottery last month.
As for Ball, he is still only 23 but has quickly became the face of the Hornets franchise. Ball will be entering his sixth NBA season in 2025-26 and averaged 25.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 7.1 assists per game this season.
On the flip side, Ball’s style of play is extremely ball-dominant, and he is often criticized for being an inefficient shot chucker. He fired off a career-high 21.3 shots per game last season, which would have been second in the NBA if Ball had played in enough games to qualify. Ball also shot an absurd 11.2 three-point attempts per game, which would have tied for the league lead. On top of that, the oft-injured Ball has now gone three consecutive seasons of appearing in 50 games or fewer, leaving his teammates to carry the load while he is hurt.
In terms of his personality, the two-time All-Star Ball is bit divisive there as well and has had multiple instances of his allegedly reckless off-court behavior come to light. For either basketball or non-basketball reasons, it sounds like Ball has rubbed at least one young prospect the wrong way entirely.
