To the casual basketball fan, Friday night’s matchup between the hometown Charlotte Hornets and visiting Oklahoma City Thunder might seem like your normal, run-of-the-mill, mid-January NBA showdown. But half a world away, this contest holds some significant meaning down under in basketball-crazy Australia.
For the first time in a regular season setting, Hornets’ guard LaMelo Ball and Thunder guard Josh Giddey will square off on an NBA hardwood floor. While their respective upbringings in the sport started off quite differently, the paths these two have navigated the past couple years leading up to this point have been strikingly similar.