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LaMelo Ball rolls up to Hornets game in Mystery Machine, shows off new Scooby-Doo Puma kicks

Brian Jones Profile Picby:Brian Jones11/21/24

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LaMelo Ball
Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Charlotte Hornets star LaMelo Ball channeled his inner Scooby-Doo when he arrived at the area on Thursday night. The 23-year-old was seen driving the Mystery Machine truck before showing off his Puma Scooby-Doo kicks. It was recently announced that Ball has a Scooby-Doo x Puma MB.04 “Mystery Machine” collection dropping on Nov. 27.

Ball signed a reported $100 million contract with Puma back in 2020 shortly after the Hornets selected him with the No. 3 overall pick in the draft. “I am really excited to be joining the PUMA family,” Ball said in a release at the time, per Forbes. “I believe the brand is the perfect partner for me because PUMA will allow me to just be myself. I want to be 100-percent authentic whether that’s playing basketball or showing off my personal style and that’s what I want to do with PUMA.”

“Puma does have a jet that we use for many of our players and, of course, he’ll have access to that jet,” Puma’s Global Director of Brand and Marketing, Adam Petrick, told Esquire at the time. “The value of our contracts sometimes comes down to agents inflating dollars, and that’s okay. It is what it is and it’s part of the culture.”

A look at LaMelo Ball’s NBA career

LaMelo Ball has had a strong start to his NBA career. He was named Rookie of the Year in 2021 and selected to his first All-Star game in 2022. Before the start of the 2023-24 season, Ball signed a contract extension with the Hornets. He finished the year averaging 23.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and eight assists per game.

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This season, Ball is averaging 28.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 6.6 assists per contest. In the Hornets’ season opener, Ball tallied 34 points eight rebounds and 11 assists. He became the first player in franchise history to have at least 30 points and 10 assists in a season-opening game.

Before joining the NBA, Ball spent one season with the Australian-based National Basketball League (NBL). In his one season with the league (2019-2020), Ball was named Rookie of the Year after averaging 17 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.8 assists in 12 games.