The shooting woes of Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball haven’t gotten any shortage of coverage this season, but the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft has actually been better in that department of late, after a historically rough start.
Over 17 games since Dec. 1, Ball has actually been shooting 38.4 percent from behind the arc (third on the Lakers among players taking three or more attempts per game) and knocking down 42.6 percent of his shots overall.
That means he’s has been an above-average-to-good shooter from deep in almost half of the 38 games he’s played in, so Ball might not be as hopeless of a shooter from downtown as many seem to think.
However, like most rookie narratives, the one about Ball being a bad shooter was locked in at the start of the season and just reinforced every time he shot poorly. Which is probably why a video in which he seemed to lose a shooting contest to rapper Bow Wow got so much attention (warning: video contains explicit language):
Bow Wow beat Lonzo in a shooting contest IN SOCKS ????(via @smoss) pic.twitter.com/qr2UN2BAK8
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 27, 2018
But did Ball actually lose any such contest? According to the rookie himself, no, as he took to Twitter to essentially deem it fake news:
False advertisement… Getcha facts straight then #geturmerch ????️????️????️ https://t.co/n6ryRiLhAs
— Lonzo Ball (@ZO2_) February 27, 2018
Bow Wow himself later confirmed Ball did not lose their competition:
Shout out @ZO2_ the homie got me 2-1 he won the series. Want my REMATCH! Pleasure to have him and the sqaud at the compound. Best of luck bros! Stay healthy #BBB #YEAAHH pic.twitter.com/Bq2x01RZYX
— Bow Wow (@smoss) February 27, 2018
A lot of people did seem to celebrate and bounce around with Bow Wow after Ball missed his final jumper, which further fueled the belief that Ball had been defeated. However, the video now clearly only showed one round of the contest and lacked other context.
Regardless of whether he lost one round or the entire competition, as long as Ball keeps shooting decently in actual NBA games, stuff like this will eventually cease to be important.
