Welcome to Good Burger? This is how the Hornets get LaMelo & Co. to the All-Star Game
Hollywood, look out.
With a plethora of accolades already dotting his resume, the Charlotte Hornets’ most recognizable face from Southern California appears ripe for his close-up. Break out the expensive high-definition cameras and makeup trailers. The 20-year-old with the toothy grin is ready to put some of the Oscar-winning amateurs in their place.
“I could be in a movie, you feel me?” LaMelo Ball casually explains to The Observer in his trademark nonchalant style. “I’ve been acting my whole life, man. However it comes.”
Ball’s skills were put to the test recently, along with those of Miles Bridges and Terry Rozier. To drum up more interest locally and nationally, and spread the word about their individual seasons to raise their profile as candidates for the 2022 All-Star Game in Cleveland next month, the Hornets had the trio get together for their own mini movie. They were comically corny, showing themselves in a light people certainly aren’t accustomed to seeing.
“Buzz City Burger” is a spoof of the 1997 cult favorite “Good Burger,” which was partially popularized by the sultry and sassy R&B single “All I Want” by 702 and featured the dry humor of Keenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell of the “Keenan & Kel” and “All That” fame. Nobody had to twist Rozier’s arm until he relented to participate.
“Yeah, I’ve seen ‘Good Burger’ a couple of times,” he said. “It’s silly. I watched it recently a couple of times, too. You know it’s a kid movie. I’ve been watching it since I was a kid so it was good to do the campaign and reflect it off of that.
“It was dope. It’s always good to mix it up and get creative with it, obviously for the fans and people that are voting. But I think it’s going to turn out great. You’ve got three people who are silly as hell and we are always together, too. So it’s kind of like night and day for us.”
About as simple as hurling an alley-oop anywhere near the hoop to Bridges.
“It’s fun,” Bridges said. “I think that just shows what type of team we are. We like to have fun. We are not an ordinary team that just does regular stuff. We are trying to have fun with it.”
The idea is the brainchild of a collaboration of departments within the Hornets’ organization and represents their latest marketing initiative. Plenty of thought, time and effort goes into the product. The creative teams, marketing executives, public relations unit, digital and social personnel come together in Voltron-esque form to make it all happen. And it’s a lot. There’s even a real website dedicated to their cause.
Plus, besides the series of mini video clips slowly being introduced over the last week, the Hornets also had hundreds of faux take-out burger boxes made to distribute to further promote their message. They’re complete with a plastic burger, squeezable bottle labeled “JB’s secret sauce,” a menu, cup and apron and.
Basically everything but the change and receipt.
“I think it is great for our brand to have three guys who are considered potential All-Stars,” Hornets vice president of communications Mike Cristaldi said. “We do these campaigns for different reasons. We want to be able to highlight the season that these guys are having and do it in a way that’s a little different than, ‘Hey, how many points are they averaging or how many assists are they averaging?’
“So you do it in a way that provides a little bit of publicity for them, a little bit of attention. It’s fun. Fans are able to relate to them a little bit more, see their personality. The other piece is the guys have a lot of fun with it, too.”
Throughout this past half decade, the Hornets have tried to get their word out about a particular player in a variety of fashions. But this is different because Kemba Walker was involved in most of them. Whether it was their Chuck Norris, Walker Texas Ranger-themed All-Star campaign in 2017 or their “His City, His Time” slogan in 2019 when there was a push to get Walker in as a representative since he was having a great season and the game was in Charlotte, Walker was usually the beneficiary.
Last season, the Hornets came up with S’more Graham for Devonte’ Graham to raise his profile during the race for the league’s most improved player.
“Yeah, it’s crazy,” he said. “I watched those guys have unbelievable seasons and for me to be having a good season like I’m having, it’s surreal to see. So I just want to keep growing, keep getting better and help us get some wins.”
The first return on the league’s fan voting for the All-Star starters had Ball fifth among the Eastern Conference guards and Bridges eighth among the frontcourt players. Another update will be unveiled on Thursday. Fans represent 50% of the vote and current players and a media panel will account for 25% each.
“That’s what I was expecting,” Bridges said. “There’s a lot of people who’ve got better stats than me in the NBA with better records. So I wasn’t really coming in with high expectations for that. And I’m not really worried about that. I’m just worried about getting better for my team and getting some wins.”
Ball is appreciative of the love.
“That’s what’s up,” Ball said. “That’s respect. Love the fans, pretty much everybody who voted. It’s just a blessing.
“Yes, sir. (Miles) eight, Melo five. Yeah, that’s hard. Let’s try to get us a little higher, man.”
The early recognition shows the perception of the Hornets league-wide is changing. Noticeable enough to imply they boast a couple of the best, upcoming young players in the conference.
“It’s huge,” Rozier said. “Since we drafted Melo, since we had a couple of signings and stuff over the summer, we’ve been kind of one of the teams to watch. So hopefully we’ve just got to keep living up to the hype and take care of business on that court and we’ll be fine.”
So eat your hearts out, Universal. Here’s looking at you Warner Bros.
Ball isn’t about to quit his day job, but he thoroughly enjoyed his foray into another potential line of work in the future.
“I ain’t going to lie,” Ball said. “ It was early in the morning. I could have had some more sleep, you feel me? But nah, once it was all said and done and you’re looking at it, yeah, it was cool. It was a blessing being with my brothers, so yeah it was cool.”
