Hornets center Moussa Diabate on if he’s ever been in a car driven by LaMelo Ball: “Hell nah. Never will.”
I love the LaMelo resurgence but dude seriously needs to have his license revoked. He can pay for a personal driver.
Yeah, we are way too blasé in the US about traffic deaths. A functioning and reasonable motor vehicle system would have seized LaMelo’s cars and license a long time ago. It’s really not funny, that dude is going to kill someone and the fact that he is rich and plays basketball in a fun way is a lot less important than that.
Yeah, we are way too blasé in the US about traffic deaths.
A radio host from a station mainly about roads and traffic once said “Our city averages about one death per day from accidents. If it was any other place on earth, it’d be the biggest news and issue.”. It became a talking point for some time.
It’s still over one per day in Istanbul. It’s sad to hear that the US is like that too.
Just visited Istanbul this past October for the first time and absolutely loved it, but the traffic there is fucking nuts. It seemed like it was constant traffic jams all day every day, even in more residential areas that you would think may be quieter.
The traffic jams are a part of life. They’re constant regardless of the hour. The daily population is around 20M when you count people coming in for work from neigboring areas and such. It’s too many people for the space the city occupies.
Or you can go tokyos route which is so so much better.
Hell even in chicago Id rather take public transpo over car any day and ours is c+ at best
I’d rate ours higher. You can get to anywhere with public transport in decent comfort. We give consultation to other cities in the world about public transport and utilities. It’s still too many people.
Yeah ive heard. Then why on earth would you drive a car jeeeee3z
Because people are idiots. They’d rather sit in traffic than take the extensive public transport network. It’s baffling.
Drivers are also insane there.
My first time I went (went once in 2017 and again last year), the taxi driver at the airport was fucking zipping in and out of traffic at 30-40kph over the speed limit like it was Fast and the Furious. I was white knuckling the entire time lol
Yeah, we are way too blasé in the US about traffic deaths
Fuckers in this sub taking about “Oh he’s just a young kid making mistake. Everyone does it”
Those comments pissed me off to no end
You and I both know you had to sort by controversial to find comments like that lmao. This ain’t Twitter
Literally look at the other reply to his comment lol
In one email to Jeffrey Epstein, former CEO of Barclays Jes Staley explains that the reason the masses aren’t in revolt against the rich is that they’re placated by consumerism and celebrity culture.
This is why.
“bread and circuses” or whatever
Well they are fucking with our bread for real
Romans got free bread and games, we’re paying for ours. Roman peasants were actually pretty militant about their rights unlike US voters. Our nation that started with protest and protects protest in the Constitution just shot protestors. It’s just crazy.
We’re blasé about traffic deaths, because it was designed to be
In the early 20th century, as car deaths surged, the auto industry pushed a campaign to normalize it. They popularized the term “accidents,” promoted jaywalking laws that shifted blame onto pedestrians, and influenced media coverage to shape public perception.
A lot of what we accept today was deliberately constructed at the expense of the American public.
True, but at the same time, pedestrian deaths have dramatically increased over the past decade, undoing 30+ years of progress.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fEj-pyjA2oo&pp=ygUeUm9hZCBndXkgcm9iIHBlZGVzdHJpYW4gZGVhdGhz
The decade when literally everybody started carrying around smartphones and getting addicted to social media? What a coincidence.
Also cars getting taller and taller
And heavier and “safer”
modern car design also seems to completely disregard pedestrians
The decade when every other suburban dude unnecessarily buys a pick-up which is significantly more likely to kill a pedestrian than a sedan because of where they impact a pedestrian (chest vs leg), as well as having more energy at the same speed because of the higher mass.
The last time this topic came up, I said driving on your phone or distracted otherwise and doing stuff like drifting into the other lane should get your license revoked
An alarming number of people tried to argue with me that it’s actually very normal to drive distracted every now and then
tangentially related but the fact that google maps and other navigation services will put popups on your screen like “do you want to reroute” or “is there still a cop/stalled car/obstruction by the road” and expect you to accurately click a button with less surface area than the tip of my pinky figure to dismiss the prompt while you’re driving 80mph on the freeway is BONKERS. they should not encourage or ask you to interact physically with your phone in any way whatsoever while nav is active
And just the sheer number of new cars that put damn near everything on a touchscreen.
With physical buttons, you can learn where they are and adjust things via feel without ever looking away from the road ahead. Want it a little warmer on a cold day? No problem. Hand off the wheel for a few seconds and you’re done. But if that’s on a touchscreen? You’ll never do that without looking.
It’s alarming how many people agree with you/us who still do it. I’ve heard plenty of people say it just to see them using their phone while driving the next time I’m riding shotgun with them.
There are people I outright refuse to get in the car of because they’re so fucking shit at it
When I was younger, my dad kept playing some game on his phone and drove us straight into a ditch. Really cool.
Its crazy to, because like in my country (Europe) if a clip half as bad as any Lamelo driving clip gets as much as 200 views, the guy gets their license revoked because someone sends the clip to the police.
Fun fact we once had our best teams star player caught driving drunk in a TV show thats essentially bodycam footage before bodycam footage.
They say history rhymes. Most of reddit probably hasn’t heard of it but the Hornets have been through this before and it ended as poorly as you’d imagine. :/
Wild that it was 26 years ago.
DUIs are taken way too lightly in America. It’s not attempted homicide, but that’s only because the person with DUI doesn’t care if they kill someone or not.
They won’t even clear year-old debris from the shoulder of a highway by me. Our governments are worthless
People treat driving like it’s in the constitution.
Bro if you tell people “you should have to pay to park your car” in dense, expensive, walkabale areas, people panic in the US. Like storing your 5,000 lbs of personal property for free on-demand in public spaces is the most important issue plaguing our society.
Yeah this clip is going to age like milk if Melo ends up hurting or, god forbid, killing someone behind the wheel. ‘Haha Melo is a dangerous driver’ - it’s really not funny. As a non-American, I find the US relationship with driving absolutely insane, but then again I feel the same way about the gun laws. It’s literally the Wild West out there and enough of the population seems to have been conditioned to think it’s normal.
This is the same country that used cars and interstates to murder entire neighborhoods in every major city so that we could live lives subservient to driving.
Not to be too woke but we don’t care about traffic deaths because we’ve already surrendered our society to cars and have decided we will do nothing to make driving more inconvenient, even if that means killing tens of thousands of people per year directly by cars.
I lived in uptown Charlotte for about 2 years - I have seen him drift a Ferrari through a dead red intersection I was sitting at after a game. Man is playing Midnight Club IRL.
Literally one of two of the times I’ve been there I’ve seen him being a jackass downtown
Probably most Charlotte residents’ experience
Yep. He’s 24. He’s grown enough to cut this type of behavior out of his life, and I worry for who he might harm if he continues down this path.
Some people don’t realize how horrible a reckless driving accident can be until it happens to them or someone they know.
I have no sympathy for drunk drivers or people who drive like an asshole.
He really needs to sort this shit out before it’s too late and he ends up ruining someone else’s or his own life out of sheer stupidity.
I heard he just goes to and from home and the stadium too. Just get a scooter 😂
Boris Diaw during his time here used to ride his Segway everywhere.
Yeah but you can’t flaunt a scooter.
I love fast cars and classic cars, but if I was rich I’d be driven everywhere. When did it stop being cool to show up in a limousine? Who wants to deal with tipping a valet or finding parking when you can have some guy in a hat take care of getting you safely from door to door?
These guys live to be seen driving their cars, the fact that yall constantly bring up “wHy dOn’T tHeY gEt aN uBeR oR pErSonAl dRivEr” shows a distinct lack of awareness of the actual issue.
Same with “why don’t think go to the track if they wanna drive fast” like the whole point is to show off in traffic, no point flexing the urus on the track where nobody can see you
Don’t say sorry to me LaMelo, say it to his kids
It’s all fun and games until that moron Henry Ruggs some innocent bystander
You’d think that or seeing the Rashee Rice incident would’ve stopped players for good.
But I bet a lot of them have a “but I’m not like them! I’m more responsible” mentality which is why it keeps happening.
You think lamelo has that sort of shit cross his mind?
Yeah love LaMelo as a player but that man has for sure never had a deeper thought than “car drive fast is fun!”
You’re talking about a guy who has hot cheeto toes man.
Bro that was fake lol
the fact that people believe it says a lot tho lol
Fast car go vroom
Well I mean rice basically got a slap on the wrist. Punishment needs to be more severe on the league’s side of things. Obv lamelo isn’t at that point yet but in general.
I get that they just let the courts handle things because they’re just a company, but it affects the integrity of the culture to have guys like this in the sports sphere getting paid millions like nothing happened.
https://youtube.com/shorts/vmjQPzKbWh0?si=DAPE2-m98QijBNb7
this is how they think life works
My guy, some people are just dumb, or *not present is what I’ve come to find. Lamelo is simply not present and selfish. An adult whom he respects really needs to talk to him.
Also, most guys I know like cars and like to drive them and when that young one would like to experience driving for oneself so I get it.
BUT he’s done enough and needs to get a damn driver.
cmon now. rashee is a horrible example because its so recent. if ruggs didn’t set an example for these young athletes no one is going to. hell even dfish and jalen rose have been arrested but no one seems to learn.
Rice, the guy that players came out in support of?
If Terence Clarke case didn’t open their eyes, nothing will
The only thing they took away from Rice is that you can cause an accident, flee on foot, and only face a slap on the wrist basically.
It may be a Mandela effect but I swear wasn’t he already in a bad car accident like a couple years ago?
*weeks ago
Honestly no. That confused me even more because I swear he had already been in one before that.
He ran over a kid’s foot outside the arena
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OYwPPCWw19A
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pm4lhR8KyXA
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qh3FxLU9Yxw
Yeah, this shit isn’t funny. He’s going to kill someone sooner or later.
Hard to believe he’s eligible for parole in August. Knowing the NFL I wonder if anyone will take a chance on him
Won’t be far off from 30 by the time he could get back in playing shape so I doubt it
Unlikely he makes a team, but the fact that teams will most likely even consider him and try him out is just sad. Dude should be paying more time.
nah what he did was terrible and he shouldve been put behind bars but the actual sad thing is that athletes are one of the few groups of people that can even hope to going back to doing whatever they were doing (in terms of employment) before they did their time
Bingo. One of the endless things to hate about our ‘justice’ system.
hell donte stallworth got a second chance in the league after his dui manslaughter charge
He wasn’t all that so maybe not. He was like WR2 material. If he was a real star they definitely would though.
How are people in the comments mad at Diabate? Dude just having a regular conversation. 😭
acting like nerds but it might not be acting
I’ll have you know I’ve been a hopeless dork my entire life
you’re on reddit
There’s a couple comments like that, but I think overall people are just not cool with how casual people are about this issue. Dude is going to get someone killed.
A few months ago I was in downtown Charlotte for a business conference. I was standing on a street corner waiting for a cross signal when I’m blinded by the headlights of the tackiest Cybertruck I’ve ever seen. It swings around the corner, literally a few feet in front of me, windows down, and who do I see but Lamelo Ball looking right at me. We awkwardly held eye contact for about half a second while he rounds the corner, then he launches down the street. It almost made me laugh, one of the most bizarre and unexpected moments that I’ll remember till the day I die.
Anyways, yeah I wouldn’t get in Lamelo’s car either.
I can’t tell if this is a copypasta or not
It is now
A few months ago I was at Golden Corral for a business conference. I was standing at the dessert bar waiting for a serving spoon when I’m blinded by the speed of the hungriest customer I’ve ever seen. He swings around the corner, literally a few inches in front of me, tongue out, and who do I see but Kelvin Benjamin looking right at me. We awkwardly held eye contact for about half a second while he rounds the corner, then he launches down the buffet line. It almost made me laugh, one of the most bizarre and unexpected moments that I’ll remember till the day I die.
Replace Kelvin with Zion and you’re good in here.
Fuck why not, we needed somethin to replace the flying lotus one 😂
The Steve Blake version of that will never not be funny to me though.
What makes it diff 😵💫
A few months ago I was at Magic City in downtown Atlanta for the culture. I was waiting for my wings when I’m blinded by the headlights of the hottest dancer I’ve ever seen. She swings around the corner, literally a few feet in front of me, panties down, and who do I see but Luke Kornet’s wife looking right at me. We awkwardly held eye contact for about half a second while she rounds the corner, then she launches down on some dude. It almost made me laugh, one of the most bizarre and unexpected moments that I’ll remember till the day I die.
Including the last sentence is essential for this copy paste
Sometimes the best copypastas are the ones that actually happened
Early in your paragraph, I did have to check if this was beefcat writing it
It’s only beefcat when you don’t suspect it’s beefcat
I did catch it once but I chalk it to a fluke
A few months ago I was in downtown Charlotte at a Golden Corral. I was standing near the chocolate fondue fountain waiting for a replenishment of marshmallows when I’m blinded by the headlights of the largest wide receiver I’ve ever seen. He swings around the corner, literally a few feet in front of me, plates full, and who do I see but Kelvin Benjamin looking right at me. We awkwardly held eye contact for about half a second while he rounds the corner, then he launches down to the steak line. It almost made me laugh, one of the most bizarre and unexpected moments that I’ll remember till the day I die.
Anyways, yeah I wouldn’t eat with Kelvin Benjamin either.
*uptown Charlotte
Hornets should haze their rookies by making them ride with Lamelo.
They should haze Lamelo by destroying his cars and getting his license suspended
We finally got good rookies and you’re trying to kill them?
🤣 that would be wild risking all their talent like that
Dude needs to have his license revoked and his cars dropped into a chipper.
Seriously this dude has Generational Wealth. Can’t he have a Driver lol
This might surprise you, but a lot of people like driving fast cars
“My teammate is a possible idiot savant and a danger to himself and others.”
“It’s cool though” lol
This is such a reddit comment lmao
Ion think he really means it’s cool tho. I think It’s a filler word like how people say “um”, “you know”
He knew when he commented Diabate wasn’t literally calling his driving cool, but has to play dumb
🤷🏾♂️
Not “possible,” kid has only ever been taught to play ball. Went pro in Australia at 16. Tell me a kid at 14 who knows he is on the path to anywhere pro that listens in High School
Wembanyama seems like a perfect example.
Lebron too, he knew at like 13 he would be one of the greatest players ever and still managed to never get in any trouble.
Schools were always more for raising the floor (i.e. making the dumber people slightly less dumb) than raising the ceiling. Lebron was likely already a relatively smart guy so didn’t need school to figure things out.
also parenting plays a big factor
Well LeBron had a normal non-rich life leading up to that point so it’s no surprise he’s more well rounded than most. If anything he seems risk averse to this day involving everything, especially regarding his image and brand.
What did you want him to say are yall serious lol, he has no control over what that shit head does. If anything get mad at Lowe for asking in such a light hearted way.
Nobody should be mad at Diabate though, wym? It’s just a funny clip about Ball being a bit of a menace
Anthony Edwards when asked if he should consider being a present father in all his children’s lives:
“it’s cool though”
In all seriousness the constant running of red lights and reckless driving is not even remotely funny and could result in a death some day.
I don’t think it ever was funny
I’ve seen some people make jokes, but I imagine most people have the sense to know it’s never been funny
Crazy to me these mega millionaire pro athletes don’t just hire a car service to whip them around 24⁄7. Would eliminate a lot of liability and save a few of the dumbest of them (Henry Ruggs Rasheed Rice) from ruining their lives or the lives of others
Ehh I’m not disagreeing but it doesn’t exactly surprise me young rich athletes want to drive their personal super cars
Rent out some track time and take them to a place where you can actually hit the top speed a car is designed for. Take a limousine or private car service everywhere else.
Track time is always what I bring up in these arguments but I can also say it’s not surprising these millionaires just don’t give a fuck and think the world is supposed to revolve around their good and bad choices
Given the power the owners and League have, I’m shocked that contracts don’t specify using a driver if a player is contracted for over Vet minimum. Heck, if I’m rich like Croesus the way so many owner groups are, I’d have professional drivers on staff, assigned to my players, to make sure they never touch a steering wheel. Put another way, a professional driver makes in a year what NBA players make in a night, and they wouldn’t count toward a salary cap because they’re on staff. One bad accident in an offseason and a team is screwed for years.
Very true but then all you would get is crying that “they can’t drive their nice and fancy cars and are being treated like children” when some of them literally act like children in everything outside of basketball and damn near need a babysitter to keep them out of trouble. The NBPA would be all over that shit like white on rice. They literally defended the rights of a woman beater off of principle and countless other situations where the player was clearly in fault.
Most them are 20 something multi-millionaires that grew up around yes-men. What makes you think they’ll start being level headed once they reach that status of being able to buy a cool car and not be the one to take it out for a spin?
What most of you dont realize, is the fact that none of those idiots want to be driven. Even if it was free, the only drivers who would use a car service are the exact players that are already responsible drivers and already use a service in case they shouldnt drive. No NBA player is dependant on their personal car, they choose to drive because they want to. And guys like Lamello simply are assholes that chase the adrenaline and dont care if they kill someone while doing so.
it’s crazy that so many people don’t get it. also see it all the time when people say “why not go to the track” when some WR from UGA is going 150 in the hellcat
Comments are ridiculous, app couldn’t be more stereotypically whiny and pussy
Dude driving is really dangerous and I’m sick of people pretending like it’s no big deal. LaMelo fucking drifted into the opposite lane, a head on collision is like the worst type of collision. It should be taken seriously.
You’re telling me in real life conversation this would be your response to what Zach Lowe said?
Nah I don’t care about the joke, I think it’s funny. But in general I hate how flippant people are about handling 3,000 lbs of machine and it bugs me.
FYI the car Lamelo crashed is like 9000 lbs.
can’t wait for 2036 when highschoolers can get a $15k 9000lb 845hp 2.6s 0-60 cybertruck for their first car
Email the hornets organization about it then
Yeah this is an absolutely unhinged comment section for such an innocuous clip lmao
How is it whiny and pussy? have you actually seen his driving? There are plenty of different Youtube videos out there with him driving into traffic, running red lights and doing it for years.
whiny and pussy
Because I think a guy who puts innocent lives at risk is a piece of shit man-child?
Aight bro have fun on that hill you’re planted on
reddit will be reddit. literally nobody talks like this in real life it’s truly funny.
It’s easier to be frank online. If I was talking to someone joking about their friend constantly being a danger on the roads I’d probably laugh it off to get out of the convo, but it’s still lame as hell
because we just stop hanging out with idiots who can’t drive safely lol
like once you’re out of high school, you can pick your friends and it’s really easy to pick friends that don’t drive like idiots
Real question Lowe should have asked is has he ever ridden Lamelo ball
What’s more ridiculous is all the replies to this hand waving putting people’s lives at risk while driving because Lamelo either wants to look cool or doesn’t care. Shit is pathetic. Call people whiny all you want for daring to think it’s not a laughing matter to drive like that when there’s so many avoidable road deaths every year.
Why do you use an app that you think is whiny and fully of pussys?
That’s weird as hell, sweetie.
Leave it to Reddit to freak the fuck out over something permanently and never let it go
[deleted]
Neither of these people are Lamelo Ball, what are they supposed to do?
What the fuck do you want them to do?
Yeah the reaction to the Lamelo driving by ppl on reddit is crazy. He’s a reckless driver and he really should do something about it, but it’s not the job of the league, Moussa, Zach Lowe, or Lamelo fans to stop it. At the end of the day Lamelo will either wise up and stop it, or pay the consequences whether that be a crash like we saw or serious tickets.
Go outside
Why do you think saying that would make you a “liberal snowflake”??
I guess you could say that expressing concern for the general public makes you a liberal snowflake… what’s weird is that OP wants to make sure that everyone knows they don’t normally think like that.
I mean he did say he never would
Making jokes, often about serious topics, is part of human nature. Especially for people not directly involved. Just look at this sub for many examples.
Like do you expect him to give a PSA about driver’s ed? I mean half the drivers I see on the road are terrible and it’s not the responsibility of NBA players to fix that problem
LaMelo is a dipshit. Fun ball player but a dipshit.
It’s going to be funny until it’s not :/
It’s kinda already not 🤷🏾
Hornets wishing they put in a no driving clause in his contract.
Don’t think that’s something to joke about lol
Why? The joke isn’t at the expense of the ppl in the other car he hit; it’s at the expense of Ball and his shitty driving. If they said something like ‘That other car should’ve known better than to be anywhere near Ball hahahaha’ (which admittedly, barely qualifies as a joke) then yeah, that’s in real poor taste. But this exchange is more like:
‘Ball’s a bad driver huh?’
‘Yeah, I’d never get in his car’
Bro like what do people want him to do and say? “LaMelo should never drive ever again and he’s a threat to society” ?
This is the time for him to make a stand!!
Lmfao bro have you been in a social interaction? Lowe asked a tongue in cheek question, he matched his energy
Foreshadowing
Hopefully next time it happens only lamelo is the one that gets hurt, he may learn something
The fact that Lamelo plays for the Hornets makes his reckless driving even more dumb. Bobby Phils, a Hornets player literally died in a car crash while drag racing with his teammate about 20 years ago.
Why does Lowe love to talk about it this but refuse to comment on the KD burner files.
after seeing that recent car crash by Lamelo, I’d say he’s a liability on the road in a car if that’s how he drives. He should get himself a personal driver not sure why he hasn’t.
He’d rather have Stefon Diggs date his sister.
Did he ask Moussa if he would trust Miles Bridges babysitting his kids?
If you’ve ever been I a car where dude thinks he’s the lead in Fast and the Furious, you know what’s up.
I feel like a bit of a curmudgeon but I don’t love that this is being treated like a big joke
Fuck lamelo ball. This idiot thinks life is one big blogging episode. One day his reckless driving is going to kill someone.
I thought David Axelrod was interviewing him for a second 💀
Super funny potentially killing people
just get a cybertruck in some crazy ass color and autodrive damn
Oh fuck off! What is decades of facts right?
Dude is French and has been with us for 2 years, how does he sound so CLT lol
How about tiger woods? 2 hours before game time.
That’s my fucking journalist. Asking the hard hitting questions we all yearn for. God I love Zach
This isn’t a flex. Known teammates will not drive with a teammate
Will never understand reckless driving and the people who support it online. There’s an agreement with society you enter when you get your license that says you will drive in a way that doesn’t lead towards others deaths.
zach asking the hard hitting questions
“He had that one incident that happened”
This week.
Diabate being a consistent force inside is a huge reason for the hornets newfound competitiveness that’s going overlooked
Thank you Zach Lowe my king
what about bill simmons?
Honestly smart decision. If you’re a franchise guy making that money, just hire a driver and remove the risk.