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It may be too early to do so, and even unfair for Lonzo Ball at this point of his career, but Jeanie Buss has already compared him to team legend Kobe Bryant.
The rookie out of UCLA is by no means near what The Black Mamba has achieved in his illustrious career, yet the Los Angeles Lakers’ controlling owner had nothing but good words to say about him. She then said that she believes Ball will have a big opportunity to make history of his own as a player of the Purple and Gold.
Buss then added, via Josh Martin of USA TODAY Sports, that she sees him as a “special” player.
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“I just think Lonzo Ball is special,” Buss said, “and I know people get made when you put pressure on a young player, but I think he’s kind of like this evolution of an evolving NBA game.”
“I used to always talk about how Kobe was rewriting all the Laker history books,” she said. “I think Lonzo has an opportunity to really make a mark in Laker Land.”
Despite his much talked about struggles with shooting from the field, Ball has proven that he can be effective in other facets of the game like rebounding and dishing out assists. In the 36 games that he’s played so far, the 20-year-old is averaging solid numbers of 10.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 1.5 steals in 33.9 minutes. He has also been able to showcase his impressive skill set and is giving the Los Angeles faithful a lot of reason to believe that their team’s rebuilding phase could end soon.
For now, Ball will need to learn a lot more if he wants to be in the same conversation as Bryant and his legacy as a Laker. However, he has been able to successfully silence a lot of his critics with his performances on the court, and if he continues to do so, it will be hard to count him to potentially be an all-time great as well.
