Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart are two of the now-former Los Angeles Lakers youngsters who are part of a new core in New Orleans. The pair, along with Brandon Ingram and a bevy of draft picks, were sent to the Pelicans over the summer in the highly-anticipated trade that saw Davis team up with LeBron James in the City of Angels.
Much has been written about the Lakers’ attempts to put all of these youngsters in a trade for Davis prior to the trade deadline, which obviously did not come to fruition, and how that had a gigantic negative impact in the locker room during the final few months of the year. Now that Hart is out of L.A., he’s able to joke about that experience.
Ball appeared on Hart’s podcast, and at one point, went on about going over to Lithuania to watch his two younger brother, LiAngelo and LaMelo, play basketball during their stint abroad. He made it a point to say Lithuania was an extremely gloomy place, and Hart couldn’t help but compare that to what they experienced with the Lakers.
Josh Hart sending shots at the Lakers Organization. 👀 pic.twitter.com/35ZwxI0qCR
— Chris Montano (@gswchris) September 4, 2019
“Lithuania was very depressing, I went there, too, to visit him,” Ball said. “I wouldn’t do it again. It’s, like, you been there? It’s, like, hella gloomy, nobody smiles. It’s like everybody just hates that they’re there, I was like, ‘Damn, I have to get out of there, bro.’”
“Sounds like L.A.,” Hart said.
Ball replied that this was “definitely not L.A.,” to which Hart was quick to point out he wasn’t talking about the city. After some goading, he made the target of this joke clear.
“I was gonna say the Lakers organization,” Hart said while everyone laughed.
It did seem like a pretty weird situation in Los Angeles in between the trade deadline and the Davis trade coming to fruition, but give Hart credit: at least he can joke about the entire thing.
