CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Decked mostly in comfortable attire that included sweat pants and padded slippers, players trickled out of Spectrum Center’s inner bowels one by one following a morning group workout.
Preparations for the Charlotte Hornets’ matchup with Indiana on Monday night were in full swing and the team’s star point guard remained in the weight room, pumping iron while on the long road to recovery. It’s a sobering reality for LaMelo Ball as he makes his way back from surgery to repair a fractured right ankle suffered on March 1.
“Oh yeah, it’s the worst,” Ball said Monday in his first comments since getting injured. “Not being able to play is always tough.”
Ball is using arm crutches to get around, and has his right foot in a walking boot to keep it protected. Although there’s not much of a silver lining, at least Ball’s latest frustrating ailment isn’t the same ankle that forced him to miss 27 games this season, and he expects to be healthy in time for training camp come September.
Still, he’s been sidelined on four separate occasions since initially spraining his left ankle during the preseason in October, with three of those absences related to the same injury. It limited him to just 36 games in his third season.
“Tough, probably annoying just going through it,” Ball said. “But (I’m) still alive so you can’t really be too mad. Just go through the rehab and that whole process and try to come out on top.”
Going down with a non-contact injury puzzled Ball at the time. As Detroit’s Killian Hayes guarded him, Ball simply dribbled behind his back, going from his left hand to his right. Ball’s right foot buckled when he planted and he collapsed, limping off to get checked out.
He was unaware at the time of the situation’s seriousness.
“I thought I popped it back in place for real because my ankles, we are already working on them,” Ball said. “I tried to walk on it, and we got to the back and it wasn’t really feeling right.”
Apparently, the previous three ankle sprains had taken a toll on Ball’s stability.
“I feel like I wasn’t at the best strength,” Ball said. “I probably should have sat out to get it right, but just got to get it stronger, you know? It’s one of those things. We play 80-something games. Get strong, get right, get back out there.”
Ball said it’s too early to tell if he will change up anything in an attempt to curtail the lower extremity injuries. He’s unsure if ankle braces are in his future, or if he may need more support in his sneakers.
“I have to see how I feel when I come back first,” he said, “and make a decision.”
In the meantime, it’s more of his daily calcium intake to build up physical fortitude.
“I drink a lot of milk,” Ball said. “I ain’t going to lie. I hated milk, but my pops always had us drinking milk to keep your bones strong. So, cookies and milk every night.”
Ball was in the midst of another solid campaign and the Hornets were riding a five-game winning streak when he got injured. He’s the lone player in the NBA this season who’s averaged at least 23 points, eight assists and three 3-point makes per game. And only five players in league history – Charlotte native and Golden State star Stephen Curry, Dallas’ Luka Doncic, Philadelphia’s James Harden, Portland’s Damian Lillard and Atlanta’s Trae Young – have accomplished that feat in a season.
Offensively, the Hornets improved by 6.6 points per 100 possessions when Ball was on the court, easily the best mark on the team. He’s also one of just four players in the league who’s averaged at least four made 3-pointers per game in 2022-23.
But his ever-improving season all came to an abrupt end exactly three weeks ago.
“Well, we didn’t make the playoffs or nothing,” Ball said. “Thirty-six games, 20, 50 – it didn’t really matter. The fact that we didn’t make it and can kind of get ready for next season makes it a little easier.”
Save for their two play-in tournament losses, Ball hasn’t yet experienced the thrill of the postseason with the Hornets. He’s motivated to change that in 2023-24.
“Oh yeah, definitely I ain’t been there,” he said. “Every team, that’s the goal, and next year we’ve really got to make it happen.”
Ball is eligible for a rookie extension this offseason and the prevailing thought is the Hornets will most likely offer him a hefty pay raise before the fall deadline. The franchise has struggled to put it all together since his arrival in town, but he’s still enjoying every minute with the Hornets.
“Yeah,” Ball said. “I love it here.”
