As a highly-touted prospect in high school, one of the top picks in the NBA draft and a starting point guard throughout his professional career, there haven’t been many low moments in the career of Lonzo Ball. Aside from the poor shooting performance or multiple-game slump, Ball has had a productive basketball career.
That being said, though, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any low moments. In a “Who’s Interviewing Who” video with Uninterrupted on Friday, Ball discussed with NBA legend Robert Horry and Pelicans teammate Jaxson Hayes the lowest point of his career.
“My lowest moment in basketball came after my freshman year in high school. My pops never let me play AAU or travel ball or nothing like that so I was just local kid nobody really knew about. But I got an invitation to the USA camp to make the team and I ended up getting cut and that kind of shaped my whole high school career from that because I was like ‘There’s no way I’m not one of the best 15 players in my class.’ I went from not even being ranked to I think I made it to No. 2 by the time I was a senior. It just gave me motivation just to chase all the guys in front of me that people thought were better than me.”
Ball is likely talking about the 2013 USA U16 National Team, though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what team he is talking about. If it is that 2013 team, that roster comprised of Harry Giles, Thomas Bryant, Terrance Ferguson, Daniel Giddens, Josh Jackson, V.J. King, Malik Newman, Ivan Rabb, Devearl Ramsey, Diamond Stone, Jayson Tatum and Seventh Woods.
As Ball alluded to, he has clearly become a better player in the long run than everyone on that roster, save for Tatum. In fact, only a small handful of those players reached the NBA and only Giles, Bryant, Jackson and Tatum are on current rosters.
