On Wednesday afternoon, Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball smashed his custom camo Hummer into another car in downtown Charlotte. Video obtained by local news station WSOC shows a grey sedan entering an intersection, only for Ball's much larger, fast-moving vehicle to swerve into it, knocking out the Hummer's front left wheel. Charlotte's WCNC obtained video from a different angle in which the driver of the sedan appears to try to avoid Ball as the latter drifts out of his lane and straight into the other car.
Ball climbed into a Lamborghini and left the scene after police arrived. Both Ball and the driver of the other car reportedly got out of their smashed-up cars without severe injury; someone told the Associated Press that Ball was not injured, but an eyewitness did tell WCNC that the other driver "basically fell down" after exiting her vehicle and crossing the intersection on foot.
This is far from the first time Ball has been caught on video doing wildly irresponsible car stuff. He and the Hornets organization were sued in May 2024 after Ball allegedly ran over a child's foot while speeding out of the arena following an Oct. 2023 scrimmage. The Hornets were dismissed from the suit this past October, though Ball, whose attorneys have argued the incident was the child's fault, is still involved in the case.
I will note the existence of a video compilation of Ball repeatedly whipping out of the Hornets' arena parking lot in various luxury vehicles and blasting through a red light.
heres a compilation of LaMelo leaving the Hornets arena, someone needs to tell him to stop running red lights jfc... pic.twitter.com/sOHeRFCpgY
— IcyVert (@IcyVert) February 22, 2023
In April 2025, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its annual report on the previous year, showing that 39,345 people died in traffic accidents in the U.S. in 2024. Of those nearly 40,000 deaths, most were drivers, while 7,148 pedestrians and 1,166 cyclists were killed. After a wave of pandemic-era moves to get cars out of many American downtowns and to convert parking spots usable by one car into patios where dozens of people can be outside, many cities are turning public space back over to drivers.
