It's quite surprising how Charlotte Hornets rookie sensation LaMelo Ball has taken the NBA by storm in his debut season. If you ask him, however, Ball is confident that he could have been playing at this level many years ago — similar to Luka Doncic's historic run in the EuroLeague as a teenager.
When asked at what age he believes he was “NBA ready,” Ball nonchalantly responded without an ounce of doubt in his mind:
“Reasonably competed? I would say, my thought process, I was 14 at the time when I thought I could have been,” Ball claimed, via Jonathan Abrams of The New York Times.
Quite a hot take from the Hornets stud here. Ball, the current frontrunner for this season's Rookie of the Year award, is now 19, so this means that according to his unwavering self-assessment, he firmly believes he could have been playing in the NBA some five years ago.
For what it's worth, Luka Doncic signed with Spanish giants Real Madrid at the age of 13. While he did not dominate the EuroLeague as soon as he arrived, it did not take long before the now-Mavs superstar made his stamp on the game.
This has us thinking. Assuming that the NBA did not have a minimum age requirement in place, could LaMelo Ball actually have competed at the NBA level at such a young age? 14 may be a bit of a stretch for him, but maybe at 16 or 17? He definitely seems to think so.
Whatever the case may be, however, we're all just delighted that LaMelo Ball is in the NBA now. The Hornets star has many, many years of elite basketball ahead of him, and we're all going to be part of the ride.
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