$35 million Lonzo Ball would never take LeBron James for granted following Lakers trade

Lonzo Ball reveals just how grateful he is about his time spent with LeBron James on the Los Angeles Lakers.

Lonzo Ball was touted as being one of the greatest guard prospects of the 2010s coming out of his freshman year at UCLA. Of course, the Los Angeles Lakers dealt D’Angelo Russell away just before taking him 2^nd overall in 2017 at the behest of Magic Johnson who claimed Ball was more of a leader in comparison to D-Lo.

However, mere 2 years into his career with the purple and gold, Lonzo was traded away alongside Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for NBA Top 75 player, Anthony Davis. Zo’s final year in Tinseltown came with an unexpected benefit and that was his chance to play with LeBron James.

LeBron made his way to the Lakers after dragging a lackluster Cavaliers team to the NBA Finals in 2018. Looking for a fresh start, he headed West.

While he was only teammates with Lonzo Ball for close to half a season (James sat out almost half the year due to a lingering groin injury), the two formed quite the brother-like bond with one another.

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Lonzo Ball on how he views his time with LeBron James.

While Lonzo Ball didn’t live up to the Jason Kidd-like expectations that were placed on him coming into the NBA, he still managed to snag a respectable second contract. This was worth $80 million over 4 years while with the Pelicans, bringing his net worth to $35 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

During his time away from LeBron James and the Lakers, he’s remained quite close to him. in a recent interview, Ball said, “He was my favorite player growing up, so being able to share the court with him and learn from him was a time in my life I’ll never get back, I’ll take for granted.”

“He was my favorite player growing up, so being able to share the court with him and learn from him was a time in my life I’ll never get back, I’ll never take for granted.”

– @ZO2_ on playing with @KingJames (via @CBSLA) pic.twitter.com/NiDyuBJtfm

— Basketball Forever (@Bballforeverfb) September 8, 2022

Now with the Chicago Bulls, Lonzo proved himself to be the team’s best perimeter defenders alongside fellow former Laker, Alex Caruso. However, his time out on NBA hardwood has been cut short due to a lingering knee injury.

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