Charlotte Hornets shooting guard LaMelo Ball is quickly becoming one of the brightest stars in the NBA. He has already been named to the NBA All-Star team and last summer he signed a hefty 5-year, $260 million contract extension to remain with the franchise. Not too shabby for a 22-year-old.
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But Ball is learning that the price of fame is often a heavy cross to bear. The Hornets star is facing legal trouble. A lawsuit was recently filed against Ball and it sounds quite serious.
LaMelo Ball Slapped With Lawsuit
11-year-old Angell Joseph was allegedly waiting outside the arena to get an autograph from the All-Star guard. However, Ball refused to sign the autograph for the fan. While driving away Ball allegedly ran over the young fan’s foot, breaking it. And now his family wants to be compensated.
“[Angell] was like, ‘LaMelo, I love you. I love you, sign my… give me your autograph. Can you sign it for me?'” Tania McCrae, Angel’s mom, said.
“So I just seen my son kind of go down and I thought maybe he had dropped something,” she added of the moment Ball allegedly struck Joseph’s foot.
The report also notes that the family tried to get compensated through Ball’s insurance, but the police report didn’t include his insurer or his name. So they had to go a different route.
LaVar Exchanges Words With Kevin Durant
LaVar Ball, father of Lonzo and LaMelo Ball is known as a professional instigator when it comes to his opinions on the game of basketball. So it came as no surprise when LaVar and NBA star Kevin Durant got into a heated exchange during an episode of Kevin Durant‘s podcast The ETCs.
Ball is a person who believes he can do whatever he sets his mind to including being a head coach in the NBA.
“Hey, don’t let me be no coach in the NBA. Why? I’m gonna be the first sucker to press,” Ball said per a transcript from Yahoo! Sports. “‘You can’t press!’ Somebody is gonna get tired. You can say what you want, but somebody [is] gonna get tired, and it ain’t gonna be us.”
Durant vehemently disagreed with LaVar. “You’re not pressing no point guard, no starting point guard in the league right now. I don’t believe that’s happening,” said Durant.