LeBron James’ first season in Los Angeles with the Lakers did not meet expectations as the team floundered in the second half of the season before finding its way into the lottery. Not everything about the season was underwhelming, though.
During an appearance on the House of Highlights show on Tuesday, Ball shared a story from one of his first scrimmages against James.
“Because we played 5-on-5, I remember. He had his team, I had my team. And I swear we lost 21-7 and he had 21. Cause I don’t remember him ever hitting threes like that and he hit seven threes and was dialed (in). That was a shock to me. He was windmilling at halfcourt and I was like ‘He’s on the team now. Cool.’”
The stories of the scrimmages in the preseason for the Lakers have been shared this season but this is the first from Ball and it’s the first about Ball and James playing one another.
Ball’s first encounter with James after he signed with the Lakers didn’t come until the two met at the facility itself over the summer. While Ball said he had a strong feeling that James would come to Los Angeles, he found out the same way everyone else did: a Woj alert.
“I had a good feeling. I found out on Twitter just like everybody else. And I just looked at my phone that was going crazy. Everybody was telling me I was teammates with LeBron. I looked up Woj and it was on there and there it was.”
Ball and James excelled in the first season together. Despite playing just 821 minutes together this season, the two excelled, posting a net rating of +3.1, the third-most of any Laker duo with at least 400 minutes played this season.
With Ball returning to full health soon, there will likely be plenty more stories about scrimmages in the coming months, assuming Ball isn’t traded over the summer for Anthony Davis.
