{"id":299941,"date":"2025-11-21T20:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T20:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/299941\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T20:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T20:20:08","slug":"lamelo-ball-says-he-loves-playing-for-the-hornets-and-denies-reports-that-hes-frustrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/299941\/","title":{"rendered":"LaMelo Ball says he loves playing for the Hornets and denies reports that he’s frustrated"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 LaMelo Ball<\/a> said Friday he wants to stay with the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> despite the team\u2019s struggles and increasing speculation about his future from outside the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I love being here,\u201d Ball said following practice in Charlotte. \u201cI ain\u2019t saying nothing. I\u2019m just trying to win, that\u2019s it. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to keep doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hornets coach Charles Lee said Ball, who became the team\u2019s first max contract player in July of 2023 when he signed a $260 million deal, remains a cornerstone piece of the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a huge, huge piece of what we do, offensively and defensively,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

The comments followed a Yahoo Sports report, which cited anonymous sources, that said the 2022 All-Star point guard was growing increasingly frustrated with the team\u2019s losing ways and was open to a trade.<\/p>\n

Ball appeared to take exception to the report, reposting the story on social media with a clown emoji.<\/p>\n

The Hornets are 4-11 and have not been to the postseason since Ball\u2019s arrival as the No. 3 pick in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never heard that come from me, so the source is not from me,\u201d Ball said. \u201cSo it\u2019s just false info.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ball said he doesn\u2019t like commenting on rumors, but felt he had to speak out before the reports got out of hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they get too big, you know, you gotta say something,\u201d Ball said. \u201cIt was so much that it was making headlines in Bleacher Report and this and that, so I didn\u2019t want it to keep going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee, the team\u2019s second-year coach, said he has a great working relationship with Ball and is thrilled to hear that the sixth-year pro is committed to the Hornets building a winning franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that our perspective, I\u2019m glad to hear what he had to say because I would echo a lot of the same things,\u201d Lee said. \u201cOur ability to have communication between myself and Melo and (general manager) Jeff (Peterson) is really high, and I think that he\u2019s always communicated to us that he wants to build this thing with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe understands what it\u2019s going to take to try to win and who we need in the building and stuff, so I think that he is just committed to Charlotte. He\u2019s talked about how much he loves the city and the fans, and that\u2019s all I ever heard and that\u2019s all I focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlotte opened the season with a healthy dose of optimism, but shooting guard Brandon Miller<\/a> injured his shoulder in the second game of the season and hasn\u2019t played since.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Ball has played in only nine games due to a right ankle sprain. He is back on the court now, but remains on a minutes restriction.<\/p>\n

In his first five seasons, Ball managed to play in only 231 of 410 of the team\u2019s games due mostly to ankle issues. He has tried a variety of braces along the way, but nothing seems to have fully corrected the problem.<\/p>\n

Ball is averaging 21.6 points and 9.6 assists per game this season, but has struggled to get his shot to fall posting career lows in field-goal percentage (.385) and 3-point percentage (.298).<\/p>\n

Even if the Hornets were wanting to move Ball it would require an enormous commitment from a trade partner. Ball is under contract through the 2029-30 season and has slightly more than $168 million left on his contract, including $37.9 million this season.<\/p>\n

Ball said his focus is on seeing things through in Charlotte and building a winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ups and downs,\u201d Ball said. \u201dWe are in a down right now, but we are definitely going to go up. I am still confident in this whole group and everybody here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hornets host the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/p>\n

Steve Reed, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 LaMelo Ball said Friday he wants to stay with the Charlotte Hornets despite the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-299941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}