Every family has each member fall into a specific archetype. There’s the strong disciplinarian parent who rules the house with an iron (but measured) fist. They, of course, have their natural foil in the sweet “Good Cop” who nurtures, sometimes spoils but is always encouraging and positive. Amongst the children, you’ll have the lonely middle child and all of their anxiousness and desire for attention, the black sheep, who walks their own path in life to a tee, and the star overachiever–the apple of everyone’s eye.
Well, in the eye of the beholder.
In the Ball basketball family, the apple of everyone’s eye is the Hornets’ LaMelo Ball. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, most understood that Ball would soon make Charlotte an NBA fixture. However, they could not have seen him be so good, so smooth, so cool, and so soon.
Friday night against the Pistons (+4.5) was a particularly unique clinic for this 20-year-old prodigy. Already one of the NBA’s premier offensive floor generals, Ball was an efficiency machine against Detroit in a 141-119 victory.
LaMelo Ball joins Luka Doncic and LeBron James as the only players to record 30 points, 10 assists and 4 steals in a game before turning 21 since steals were first tracked in 1973-74. pic.twitter.com/OynRHJyYjy
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 12, 2022
10-of-14 shooting (including 7-of-9 on threes) to go with a 4-of-5 mark from the line. Twelve assists all around while facilitating a gifted young Hornets lineup. Five boards (okay, whatever, but he’s a point guard!). And, whoa–four steals. Don’t let this man pick your pocket. Oh, wait (checks pockets, dashes head around), he already did. What the heck!
A stellar performance on its face made even more impressive when noting only one of the greatest basketball players alive, LeBron James, and an established superstar like Luka Doncic, ever had a line like this before they turned 21.
No one else. Not Magic. Not Kobe. Certainly not Jordan.
The only players to record at least 30 points, at least 10 assists, and four steals in a game before they could legally drink in the United States are LeBron James, Luka Doncic and LaMelo Ball. Talk about making a name for yourself when everybody already knows who you are.
The next time the Ball family gathers around the table for dinner, I’d imagine LaMelo will have plenty to boast about while he snatches the last leftover pork chop. He earned it.
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