The Los Angeles Lakers drafted Lonzo Ball with the second overall selection in the 2017 NBA Draft. He would ultimately spend two years in LA before being shipped off to the New Orleans Pelicans in the Anthony Davis trade.
After two decent — though not terribly impressive — years in New Orleans, Ball landed with the Chicago Bulls in 2021 via sign-and-trade. Although he isn’t putting up his best numbers ever (that happened last season), the 24-year-old is in the midst of his most productive year as a pro.
With Ball guiding the squad, Chicago is 13-7 on the year – good for second place in the Eastern Conference.
This past week Ball spoke out about his time in the NBA and made a fairly interesting admission about his stint with the Lakers.
“This is my third team in five years and every team’s been a different experience for myself,” he told Dime Magazine. “Obviously, coming to L.A., I was a young kid with a lot of expectations put on me that I didn’t really live up to.
“Then [I] got shipped off to New Orleans, where I worked on my game and improved the areas that needed the most help in. Now I’m the player I am in Chicago, one of the key guys and trying to contribute every night in and night out.”
That’s one way to celebrate divorcing Johnny Manziel. https://t.co/jQ28nDRqn1
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 24, 2021
The fact that Ball can acknowledge his uninspiring run in LA is big. Obviously he has discussed underperforming with the Lakers in the past, but at that point he simply blamed it on his Big Baller Brand shoes. This is his first instance of taking true accountability.
Ball looks like a perfect fit with the Bulls, and as a whole that squad looks absolutely scary. Hopefully he can continue to play well in Chicago and live up to the hype he came into the league with, because he has more than paid his dues at this point.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
