It’s a Saturday night in early May and the Hornets are hosting the Pistons. LaMelo Ball has just returned to the starting lineup after being sidelined for five weeks due to a broken wrist. There’s a buzz, no pun intended, in the building as fans are slowly re-entering arenas, and Hornets faithful are getting their first in-person look at the prized rookie.
Midway through the first quarter, Cody Martin knocks loose a pass from Killian Hayes. P.J. Washington corrals the loose ball, passes to Ball and then it happens.
“You got to have top-notch confidence to pull something like that off,” Miles Bridges said of the play after the game.
“I have nothing to do with that,” head coach James Borrego noted with a wry smile.
In a slow jog 84 feet from the basket, Ball uncorks an underhanded pass that looks more like the form adopted in a bowling alley for an attempted strike than one used to notch an assist on the basketball court. Yet, the pass floats perfectly over the top of every player on the court and into the expecting arms of Bridges, who finishes the layup for one of the highlights of the season.
HE’S BAAAAAACCCCCKKKK!! 🕺🛸@MELOD1P | #AllFly pic.twitter.com/VAwujBvjAa
— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) May 1, 2021
Only one Hornet was on the other side of midcourt when Ball threw the pass. Bridges, the recipient of many of Ball’s spectacular dimes on the season, was the only one on that end without a dumbfounded look after the play.
Ball claims it was normal for him, based on a youth in which his outspoken father implored his sons to get the ball up the court as quickly as possible and by any means.
He was the only one in the arena that night that would call that pass normal.
“I just closed my eyes on that,” Borrego said. “I had nothing to do with that. Maybe we should be teaching the Melo underhand flip.”