Despite making a claim that he was “born” to be the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, LaMelo Ball may have actually preferred to land away from Minnesota. The Timberwolves skipped out on Ball with the top pick and the Hornets snapped at the opportunity two picks later, nabbing Ball with the No. 3 pick and putting him in a preferred situation.
Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress appeared on Zach Lowe’s The Lowe Post podcast to wrap up Wednesday’s draft. In discussing LaMelo Ball, Givony revealed that Ball preferred going to Charlotte over Minnesota.
“He was always going in the top three. He preferred to go to Charlotte over Minnesota. That’s a fact. I think he would have slightly rather been in Golden State right now but he’s very, very happy to end up in Charlotte. He’s going to have the keys to the franchise right away. They’re going to be globally relevant. They’re going to be on TV nationally, I would think, fairly often.”
Givony doesn’t further explain why Ball preferred Charlotte over Minnesota. The most logical guess would be that he wanted to be seen as the focal point of a franchise. In Charlotte, he will be the face moving forward. In Minnesota, he would have played third fiddle to both Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell.
It may also have to do with Minnesota’s struggles as a franchise, having only made the playoffs once since 2004. Charlotte has hardly done better, making the playoffs just three times in that span and not making it out of the first round in any of those appearances.
There also is the fact that Michael Jordan, arguably the best player in league history, owns the Hornets and the Timberwolves ownership is in flux. Ball was nearly speechless when asked what it will be like to play for Jordan after he was drafted, calling it a “straight blessing.”
Ultimately, there was likely not one aspect that put Charlotte over Minnesota but a combination of many.