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Tracy McGrady Says LaMelo Ball Would Thrive In A Lakers Jersey: "He's Built For That."


 

LaMelo Ball has blossomed into a star in Charlotte, but is he capable of being more?


In a chat with Shannon Sharpe on 'Club Shay Shay,' former NBA superstar Tracy McGrady made an interesting statement on the 1x All-Star.


According to McGrady, LaMelo is in line to become the next face of basketball, provided he can get himself to Los Angeles.


Sharpe: "Who's gonna be the face of the NBA in the next 10 years? I'm gonna give you Ja, Luka, Trae Young, and LaMelo Ball."


McGrady: "It'll be between LaMelo Ball and Ja. If LaMelo Ball can get to La-La land, cause I think he's built for that. Like he has that personality, that moxy, like he's built for that. I think he can be that face."



Of course, LaMelo is a southern California native, and he has close ties to the city of Los Angeles. He went and played for Chino Hills High School, which is roughly 40 miles from downtown L.A.


It's really no wonder why he has such an L.A. feel to him, and Shannon Sharpe is hardly the first one to realize his potential with the Purple and Gold.


"When I look at LaMelo Ball, year 5, three years of from, right? How old will LeBron James be in three years from now? What? 40-41? I look at that as a serious transition piece. I'm telling when I look at LaMelo Ball, I see nothing but Purple and Gold," said Jay Williams. "It's written over the way he dresses, the style in which he pulls up to games. It relates to his whole social media image, where he's from and his dad has so much to do with how things are orchestrated even with Lonzo getting there the first time."


The Lakers finished 11th this season with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook. After their second straight subpar campaign, it's fair to assume some changes are coming for the Lakeshow.


Obviously, LaMelo will not be among those changes. He's locked into his contract with the Hornets and still has some time before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.


But if he ever does come to the Lakers, it could be the day we all realize that he's what they've needed all along. His talent, cockiness, and swagger all make him the perfect fit for L.A., and some already see a future for him there.


His father, LaVar, may have a thing or two to say about it though.

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