Hoops

LaMelo Ball leaves Hawks abruptly, club 'had no idea'

I wanted LaMelo to come here and give us buzz and fall in love with Illawarra to the point that in the future he buys the team... with a departure like that I'm not as confident about that and hope to be proven wrong but hopefully he can still invest in the Gong and tell his future team mates about the positives that Australia and the NBL have and why wouldn't he?

Maybe he said goodbye to some teammates he was closer to. As for Stratford, I wouldn't really trust a guy that doesn't pay his superannuation or debts owed to the league

Remember the NBL was paying for LaMelo, not Illawarra.

He said goodbye to LK, which was nice.

And before Illawarra organisation tries to criticise LaMelo, how about they pay their superannuation obligations

Ball told LK (but not the Hawks) that he would be flying back early to the US. LK met ball on his yacht, thanked him for his service to the NBL and paid for his plane trip home

I hope he blows out his ACL before the draft even arrives for karma for faking an injury in order to get out of a commitment he made.

Why are people so critical of the Hawks organisation?

I probably don't know the full picture but people seem quick to pin stuff on the Hawks that isn't necessarily their fault/within their full control.

Granted if they were getting 15k to their games/had mass interest/commercial success and still had that budget roster, you'd rightfully raise disapproval. But they're not. The environment they're in isn't their own doing, is it?

Firstly, I don't buy the "club had no idea" line. I call BS.

Going without making an effort to say goodbye to your teammates sounds pretty poor, but we'll never know the full story.

Hawks management & ownership seem like a pack of clowns, so maybe relations had already soured once he announced his intentions.

And I don't know, was their a relationship there with Bryant. I imagine that for a lot of young basketball fans this has been hard to take. If he had a relationship, then even harder.

18 year old. 100 million dollar shoe deal doing a damocles. Raced off..

NBA teams are not going to care that he hurt the feelings of some Illawarra fans.

Come on.

Do you guys think Jim Dolan, Scott Perry and Steve Mills are going to consider Ball's exit when considering their options?

These guys are hungry for talent to draw even more crowds more buzz to MSG.

As will many other GMs to their teams.

He should have left months ago. Who was paying everything for him during that time? Still getting injury payments? Discgraceful.

Commenting here sounds like a bunch of school girl bullies. Oh how terrible, He didn't say goodbye. Who cares if he did or didn't? Are you 1o years old?

From what I can see he did far more than he needed to including sitting on the bench at each game while injured. If I was advising him he would have been back in the states 2 months ago.

He has a team full of washed up or hopefuls, I’m thinking he wasn’t close with any of them.

what r the rules of the Next star
when Ball got hurt could they replace him with another next stars player. Terry Armstrong stay for a second year with the phoenix

Who predicted he would leave the club without saying goodbye?

I'm fairly sure half the 36ers set off to find Froling mid-season too..

Harry Froling did the same thing. Was around a little last year, then no one has seen him since. No goodbye, no nothing.

This is a modern day thing today. Today they leave with no goodbyes and then post via social media. Has happened a bit in AFL and NRL in recent years. Sign a contract for however long and then 2 months later asking for a transfer.

Just shows how much people respect our joke of a league

I'm not going to defend going back home without saying goodbye but he's an 18 yo kid don't you guys think he might've been pretty nervous about walking into a gym full of grown men and saying "Yeah see ya I'm outta here lot's of luck"?

Someone a veteran player, a coach, GM or owner no doubt would've had a go at him and given him a dressing down in front of everyone which would be quite humiliating for an 18 yo kid.

I dare say this would've been his father's idea or his minder they would've known what would happen and the kid is just following their orders.

How hard would it have been to drop in at practice and say goodbye to teammates, looks very selfish, forget the "who used who" arguments they're about the club, the guys were his teammates.

Something so small won't stop him from being drafted, but it may be a tiebreaker for a franchise tossing up between players, and if it makes him say the number 4 pick instead of number 2 as an example, well that just cost him $4 million on his rookie contract.

The kid's 18. Probably doing what Lavar told him.

But, you'd think Lavar would have realised this reflects badly on his character. The scouts read the news. This is a bad look.

Well said, Air Delay.

due to shoe deal

Piss weak. 18yo kid showing no RESPECT for where he was and his team mates, owner and the fans.

As a loyal Hawkhead & being lucky enough to be around the action, I DO see both sides.

Melo's interaction with kids & the community was top notch! Never shirked a photo request at the Snakepit & certainly played too his strength when playing.

Hawkies wise, there wasn't much combined media of anything outside of training or games... AND DEFINITELY not replacing Brooks with a talented replacement ASAP tarnished the brush.

I'd like to reserve judgement on the hasty departure until we know all the facts, but there's certainly a little bit of distaste about leaving without farewelling teammates, staff or the owner.

My last hovering question is in regard to the details of a next star contract. The contract was/is with the NBL right? So the club may not even know all the behind the scenes details?

But gee, some sort of formal "goodbye" really should have happened...

What a wanker. I sure he knows what that means by now.
Let's see if he's the #1 draft pick too.

They used each other. Hawks could’ve found a way to support him with a great playing group, they could’ve replaced Aaron brooks immediately and made a run at finals. He’d still be here IF he felt he could win a title etc that would look great on his resume. When the hawks gave up off the court, Lamelo gave up on the court. Leaving without a goodbye is trash though.

it appears to have been the ultimate using-session on LaMelo's part.

The Jackson 5 bloke lol

Pretty quiet day for all the Lamelo lovers. Tacky and really says something about the guys character.

The Ghost of All Time.

It's a bit of a classless move. For all the talk of how close he allegedly was with his teammates, he ups and goes without so much as a word to them. As much as I've enjoyed watching LaMelo play and can see the many positives that came to the league because of it, it appears to have been the ultimate using-session on LaMelo's part.

I remember Joey saying, a month or so ago.. 'If he was my boy, he wouldn't be here, he'd be back home'

But he donated to the bushfire appeal.

Does a trash organisation like the Hawks deserve social graces like a farewell?

I don't.

In such case, they should be used and discarded without second thought.

American basketball sensation LaMelo Ball has unceremoniously ended his Australian stint, leaving the country without telling his teammates.

His club, the Illawarra Hawks confirmed the 18-year-old guard had taken a flight home and will continue his rehabilitation from a foot injury, which kept him sidelined since November, in the United States.

Club captain Todd Blanchfield said he was shocked by Ball's sudden departure, which he learned about when ABC Illawarra contacted him for comment.

"I'm really disappointed that he didn't say goodbye to his teammates and his coach," Simon Stratford told NewsCorp.

"We had some indication via his minder Jermaine Jackson that he wouldn't stay for the rest of the season."

"We anticipated that he'd leave around February 11, but we never thought he would leave before the Indigenous round this weekend, that is for sure."

Classy exit

Just watched Patty's video The Art Of Towell Waving. Interesting & educational.