Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 26

LaMelo Ball Hires Personal Driver in Minnesota After 10-Car History of Road Incidents

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 26

LaMelo Ball Hires Personal Driver in Minnesota After 10-Car History of Road Incidents

Q: Did LaMelo's thrilling overtime game-winner actually expose a hidden flaw in the NBA's controversial play-in tournament format?

Not really. LaMelo Ball’s overtime winner highlighted the play-in tournament’s central tradeoff more than a hidden flaw. The Charlotte-Miami game showed exactly why the NBA created the format: urgency, national attention and elimination-game drama. Charlotte, the No. 9 seed, survived a one-point overtime game despite poor outside shooting from Ball and Kon Knueppel, and advanced because Ball delivered in the final seconds. That kind of volatility is the feature, not the bug. The play-in is designed to create meaningful games for teams outside the top six and to reduce late-season tanking. What Cowherd’s criticism points to is a familiar concern: a single game can blur the difference between teams over an 82-game season. A lower-seeded team can get hot, a higher-seeded team can lose a key player — as Miami effectively did when Bam Adebayo exited early — and a season can turn on one possession. If critics see a flaw, it is that the format can reward short-term variance over sustained regular-season performance. But Charlotte’s win did not newly expose that issue; it reinforced a known tension in the system. The NBA already tries to balance fairness and entertainment by giving the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds a double-chance, while No. 9 and No. 10 must survive elimination immediately. So the Hornets proved less about being a true playoff-caliber team than about being capable of winning a high-pressure knockout game. That is precisely what the play-in measures.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 26

LaMelo Ball has hired a personal driver after moving to Minnesota, a step his brother Lonzo Ball said should keep him off the road more often in his new NBA home.
10 cars and at least one $1 million vehicle were cited by Lonzo as part of LaMelo’s spending and driving habits, saying his younger brother has had many "situations on the road" even if he "doesn’t get into accidents."
Lonzo also said LaMelo tends to damage high-performance cars soon after buying them, arguing he would be better off choosing less exotic vehicles than Lamborghinis and similar models.
The move comes after Minnesota acquired the 25-year-old two-time All-Star from Charlotte in June, sending Naz Reid and multiple draft picks to the Hornets.