Hornets Superstar LaMelo Ball Has Finally Earned Respect From the NBA World

All style, no substance. That's what the NBA world thought of LaMelo Ball for the first several years of his career. His carefree playstyle, injury woes, and inefficient shooting marks prevented people from seeing what he truly was: a special, gifted basketball player.

The Charlotte Hornets being awful during the first five seasons of his career didn't help. Ball routinely got labeled as the league's most overrated player. NBA player polls are sometimes unkind to the Hornets, though Ball is respected by his peers more often than not. 1.1% of players voted Ball as the most overrated player the last time The Athletic ran a poll.

The most overrated section of our annual player poll has emerged as the most controversial.

Thoughts on Alperen Şengün coming in at No. 1? pic.twitter.com/OEnG25cbAP
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) May 6, 2026

This time? Not a single player voted for Ball. He has completely removed himself from "overrated" talks. He didn't make his way onto the underrated side, but that's not a surprise. He's a mega star, and it would be hard to underrate him given the number of fans he has.

There are a lot of reasons Ball has justifiably graduated out of this group. For the first time, his superb on-court performance has led to a better team record. Fair or not (and it's not), that is how a lot of basketball players are judged, and Ball is no exception. He's been criticized for not winning frequently.

Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (1) dribbles up court against the New York Knicks | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

It also helps that his performance was arguably better than ever. His on/off splits were among the best in the NBA. His points per 36 were third-best in his career. The assists per 36 rank first, so this was his best passing season. Turnovers per 36 were his lowest as well.

He had one of the best offensive ratings in the NBA, and the 123.2 mark is obviously a career best (by a whopping 9.2 points). His defensive rating was third-best, and his 9.1 net rating is far and away the best mark. It's just the second time he's even had a positive net rating.

His Player Impact Estimate was a career-high 13.4. Ball's PER was among the top 50 in the NBA, and that includes those who only played a handful of games. Some analytics don't love him because they skew towards efficiency, but by and large, the numbers back up that Ball was excellent this year.

And because that excellency was on a bigger stage and for a better team, it's hard to argue that Ball is overrated anymore. In truth, he never was, but the NBA world finally knows what we've known all along.

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