LaMelo Ball Fouled Out in 20 Minutes and Spat on the Floor. Minnesota Is Paying Him $40.8 Million.
LaMelo Ball lasted 20 minutes on Halloween night in San Antonio. Six fouls, 2-for-10 shooting, five turnovers, and somewhere in the middle of it he spat on the hardwood after his fourth personal sent him to the bench. The Timberwolves lost 121-111. Nobody is going to remember the box score.
The spit is the clip going around, and it has earned the attention. It is also not the actual problem. The problem is that Minnesota traded for a franchise point guard in July and has gotten a player who cannot stay on the floor long enough to run an offense.
Six Fouls in 20 Minutes
Ball picked up two fouls in the first four minutes. He had four by the 7:40 mark of the second quarter, with Minnesota trailing 46-38, and that is when he went to the bench and spat. His fifth came less than two minutes into the third on a Devin Vassell shot attempt. The sixth arrived in the fourth with roughly 3:43 to play.
He finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals, and he was 6-for-6 from the line. None of it mattered, because Minnesota ripped off a 16-0 run after he left in the second quarter and led 61-60 at the break.
That is the uncomfortable part of the night. The Timberwolves played their best stretch of basketball with their highest-paid guard sitting down.
This Is a Pattern, Not One Bad Halloween
Ryan Eichten of Sports Illustrated counted 30 fouls in seven games for Ball, four or more in every game but one. That works out to 4.3 per game, a career high, against a career average closer to 3.1. He is doing it in about 25 minutes a night, a career low, and he has cleared 30 minutes exactly once this season.
Chris Finch defended him afterward, though the defense was aimed at the officiating rather than the spit. “He has got to figure it out, right?” Finch said, before arguing that opponents are “fouling him all over the floor” while Ball gets whistled for touch fouls. “I thought we got rid of that stuff in the 80s, but apparently not.”
Ball offered a version of the same thing. “I wasn’t even trying to foul, and it was just happening,” he said.
No Fine, No Technical, No Comment
The NBA has not announced a fine or a suspension, and no league source has confirmed that a review exists. Ball was not assessed a technical foul for the spit and was not ejected. He has not addressed it publicly, and the Timberwolves have not said anything about it either.
He does have a file with the league office. Charlotte-era discipline includes a $100,000 fine in November 2024 for using an anti-gay slur in a postgame interview, $35,000 last October for an obscene gesture on the court, and $60,000 in April for a flagrant foul on Bam Adebayo plus profane language in a live postgame interview.
The Contract Changes the Math
Charlotte sent Ball and Josh Green to Minnesota in a four-team deal that became official July 10. The Hornets came away with Naz Reid, a 2033 unprotected first and a stack of swaps. Ball is owed $40,770,520 this season, $43.58 million next season and $46.39 million in 2028-29.
Minnesota is 4-3 and has lost three straight. Anthony Edwards is out after a knee procedure. Rudy Gobert and Donte DiVincenzo both missed Saturday. This is precisely the stretch Ball was acquired for, and instead he is collecting touch fouls and watching fourth quarters.
On the other end, Victor Wembanyama went for 43 points and six blocks, Dylan Harper added 25 and De’Aaron Fox had 22. San Antonio is 4-2 and has won four in a row.
Finch is probably half right about the whistle. It does not get him anywhere. A $40 million point guard has to find a way to stay in the game, and seven games in, Ball has not.
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.
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