LaMelo LaFrance (born August 22, 2001) is an American professional basketball player who plays with the Charlotte Hornets (NBA). He was selected by the Hornets as the third overall pick of the 2020 NBA draft. Ball was named as the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2021. He was selected as an NBA All-Star the following season in 2022.Ball started high school in Chino Hills High School in Chino Hills, California, where he was the winner of the state championship and had national fame in his freshman year with his older brothers Lonzo and LiAngelo. Prior to his junior season, a coaching dispute prompted him to quit Chino Hills and sign with Lithuanian professional team Prienai. In the year 2018, he participated in the Junior Basketball Association (JBA) which was a league founded by his father, before going back to school in the year he was an senior at SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio. Ball was a five-star prospect and committed to UCLA but decided to skip college basketball due to eligibility concerns and play in Australia for the Illawarra Hawks of the National Basketball League (NBL) in the year 2019. There he had a meteoric rise. Previously, scouts had ridiculed Ball as an undrafted second rounder and a possibility of never making it into the NBA.
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