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LaMelo Ball · For all of the tricks that magicians — and Orlando Magic players alike — are capable of unleashing, a quick study of the rising star in purple-and-teal might be confirmation enough that their aesthetic “bag” isn’t as deep as the one belonging to LaMelo Ball. A breaker of both ankles and seemingly-established “rules” of what should work in basketball’s long-established game, Ball, fittingly without breaking a sweat, confidently eyeballs the quickly-draining play clock with a smile before craftily hunting out a pick-and-roll switch. Merciless in attacking Goga Bitadze’s valiant-yet-helpless defensive stance, Ball deploys everything from between-the-leg, behind-the-back combinations to space-creating in-and-out stepbacks before appropriately settling on a final trick: a one-legged 3-pointer, commanding well-deserved awe from the Charlotte Hornets’ faithful. In building an innovative, freestyle-type game worthy of new superlatives and descriptive phrases, Ball’s individual brilliance on November 25, 2024, even in defeat, became one for the record books. Two nights removed from a 50-point fireworks show, the All-Star guard electrified for 44 points (on 17-of-30 shooting), alongside a nine-rebound, seven-assist, one-steal, one-block, four-triple backing, affording him the most points over a three-game span in Hornets history. · State of Mint