Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry saw the same highlight clip you did: 15-year-old UCLA commit LaMelo Ball pointing at half court, then casually pulling up and nailing the jumper. On Thursday, Curry offered some praise from one half-court sniper to another.
"That was some confidence right there," Curry said, via Let's Go Warriors. "The fact that he made it. I wonder if he's done it before and missed it. It's the highlight-driven generation, so that right there was pretty unbelievable, though. For him to call his shot like Babe Ruth and knock it down and act like nothing happened. So shoutout to him."
To answer Curry's question, Ball has made and missed that kind of shot many times before. In a piece for The Ringer (entitled "Be Like Steph?"), his father, LaVar, told Danny Chau, "I got [LaMelo] taking those since he was 7 years old," LaVar said. "I got all my boys shooting from damn near half court." LaVar also totally dismissed the idea that his three sons were influenced by Curry and the Warriors.
With LaMelo hitting shots like this and Lonzo draining deep 3s for UCLA, though, the comparisons are probably not about to stop. Now that Curry himself is taking notice, the Ball brothers might as well embrace it.
