Ball’s feats lead to some uneasiness
Watching LaMelo Ball is in some ways like a glimpse into the future. Three years from now he will be at UCLA, following in the footsteps of his two brothers. In four years, if things go to plan, he will be in the NBA.
At 15, this high school phenomenon, who racked up a headshaking 92 points last week, is one of the best players in the country. To witness him in action is exciting and dramatic. There are dunks and tricks and behind-the-back passes that have the crowd gasping, and that’s just the warm-up.
There is enough to fill a highlight reel, or three. And it is also, to be frank, a little tough to watch.
Though Ball brings entertainment aplenty, whether it is with his 92-point creation Tuesday or with a more modest 27 in a 10570 Chino Hills victory at Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, the method of it raises questions about what high school hoops is supposed to be about.
It was easy to balk at Charles Barkley’s negative summation of the 92-point outburst, especially in these days when Sir Charles engages in heated spats with many — most notably LeBron James.
Yet there is something in Barkley’s remarks.
Watching Ball park himself at midcourt or beyond, waiting for a teammate to snare a rebound or an inbound ball and hurl him a court-length pass, isn’t much fun. Presumably Ball does so on the orders, or at least with the tacit blessing, of first-year coach Stephan Gilling, and only Gilling knows what the true intention is.
Is it a legitimate tactic, as the program’s supporters will claim? Or is it aimed at padding Ball’s numbers or piling on the humiliation for opponents who are usually smaller, slower and less talented than a roster that is one of the very best in the nation?
When, to outward appearances at least, the Chino Hills show becomes less about winning basketball and more about becoming a high school version of the Harlem Globetrotters, it makes for difficult viewing.
On Thursday, Rancho Cucamonga was cast as the Washington Generals, on their own floor, on their own senior night. Maybe that’s just basketball. Flair and showmanship are part of the sport and what makes it so intoxicating, yet it loses some of its lus- ter when it is high school kids on the end of the showboating. At least the Generals got paid.
There is no desire here to pick on Ball, a boy with the skills of a man and with, by any reasonable standard of reckoning, a future that figures to be bright.
Yet if he is being shown, perhaps not by express comment but by the way things play out, that his personal quest is bigger and more important than that of the team, it is a worrying sign.
Those who claim that Ball setting up camp in one half and shunning all pretense of defense is “just how Chino Hills plays” are wrong. He doesn’t do it early in games. He doesn’t do so when things are tight. If it is such an indispensable tactic, why wasn’t he doing it when Chino Hills was surprisingly down 11-1 in the opening minutes?
It happens much later, once the opposition is down by 25, 30, 35 points. At times Ball was even joined by another teammate, both waiting for a long pass with which to try to orchestrate a trick or a stunt. It was fun for a while. Until it wasn’t.
Ball will go to UCLA in a couple of years time, and given that he is trending on a path even higher than that of his oldest brother, Lonzo, who is tipped to be an NBA lottery pick after a one-and-done season in Westwood, you can expect fireworks.
The next level, however, is a different game. “Defense: optional” doesn’t really cut it in college. Presumably Ball, with all of his ability, can defend. If he can do it even half as well as he can score, then it would be pretty darn good. But we don’t know yet because he doesn’t do it, because he isn’t made to, in his current forum of competition.
Maybe now that the regular season is over that will change. We don’t know.
There is a lot we don’t know. There is a lot to like about LaMelo Ball and a lot to love about high school basketball. Chino Hills, its players and its coach have the right to play the game however they like. They do so within the rules, there is no question of that. Yet there is still something about this narrative that is already starting to sit uneasily with many. Hopefully it does not become a lingering part of what promises to be a long and successful story for a teenager with special talent.