After practice on Friday, LaMelo Ball directly addressed a report claiming he was open to being traded, making it clear that he wants to stay with the Charlotte Hornets – the team that drafted him in 2020.
Ball pushed back strongly on the story and restated his commitment to the franchise.
“I love being here,” the player said. “I ain’t saying nothing. I’m just trying to win, that’s it. That’s what we’re going to keep doing.”
Charlotte is off to a 4–11 start, and Ball has had a difficult time staying healthy in his first five seasons, appearing in just 231 of 410 possible games because of repeated ankle injuries.
Even so, he emphasized that any suggestion he wants out is not coming from him.
“He never heard that come from me, so the source is not from me,” Ball said. “So it’s just false info.”
Ball added that he would have preferred not to address the rumors at all, but felt he needed to step in once the reports began circulating widely.
“When they get too big, you know, you gotta say something,” Ball said. “It was so much that it was making headlines in Bleacher Report and this and that, so I didn’t want it to keep going on.”
LaMelo Ball On Trade Rumors: I Love Being Here https://t.co/Lk4HzYKYIg
— RealGM (@RealGM) November 21, 2025
