Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball, unlike his team, is having one of his best seasons so far. With his impressive numbers considered, former Washington Wizards guard and now sports podcaster Gilbert Arenas likened the recent performance of Ball to Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan during his peak years as a player.
In one of his podcast episodes, Gilbert Arenas likened the way LaMelo Ball plays his games to how Jordan played, and how he said most of the NBA games were played back in the day. As Arenas put it, both Ball and Jordan appear to focus on their shooting and personal records and not passing the ball around to their “sorry” team.
“What LaMelo is doing is exactly how basketball was played back in the day,” Arenas said. “When your team is sorry, the star just shoots the ball. Stop passing to these bad a** players. There’s a reason MJ didn’t pass it to f*****g BJ Armstrong.”
Arenas also highlighted his opinion on how Jordan managed to keep a high average score record
He added: “MJ averaged 37, why? Because everyone else was like (unimpactful).”
Michael Jordan had an overall career average of 30.1 points. At some point, he even had a season average of more than 40 points per game.
So far this season, LaMelo Ball has averaged 31.1 points per game, with Brandon Miller following him as a second top scorer at 20.6 per game. Miles Bridges, Tre Mann, Nick Richards, and Grant Williams all had an average of double digits. The rest of the Hornets are only averaging single-digit points per game.
LaMelo Ball “For Sure Over Dame Right Now”
Former Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousin recently expressed his praise towards LaMelo Ball, comparing him to Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard Damian Lillard. Cousins believed that at this point in the career of both players, Ball may have surpassed Lillard already.
“He [LaMelo] is for sure over Dame right now,” Cousins said in an interview. “In this moment, right now, I think LaMelo is outperforming Dame.
Cousins clarified that while he still prefers Lillard over Ball, Ball is winning in performance right now.
He added: “Overall, I’m obviously going to take Dame. In this moment, it’s LaMelo for me.”
Compared to LaMelo Ball’s 31-point average, Damian Lillard so far has averaged 26 points per game this season, with a 44.1% shooting rate from the field, 35.8% from beyond the arc, and 92% of his free throws.
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
