{"id":740026,"date":"2026-05-21T08:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/740026\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T08:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:33:17","slug":"watch-hornets-lamelo-ball-give-moussa-diabate-the-nba-hustle-award-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/740026\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Hornets\u2019 LaMelo Ball give Moussa Diabate the NBA Hustle Award trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watch Hornets\u2019 LaMelo Ball give Moussa Diabate the NBA Hustle Award trophy<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Charlotte Hornets<\/a> had a season to remember. They came close to ending their nine-year drought in the playoffs after making it to the Play-In Tournament. Unfortunately, they fell short by one game.<\/p>\n

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Still, there were plenty of positives from their campaign. The core of LaMelo Ball<\/a>, Kon Knueppel<\/a>, Brandon Miller<\/a>, Miles Bridges<\/a>, and Moussa Diabate<\/a> was quite formidable, and the Hornets could wreak havoc in the coming years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Diabate, in particular, was a revelation<\/a>. He had a slow start, but he eventually earned the starting nod and averaged career-highs of 7.9 points, 63.1% field goals, 8.7 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks in his second year in Charlotte.<\/p>\n

He anchored the Hornets\u2019 defense with his tenacity, motor, and toughness. He fully embraced his role, and good things usually happen when a player does that.<\/p>\n

The NBA named him the recipient of the Hustle Award, and Ball surprised Diabate with the trophy during their practice, as shown in the video<\/a> posted by the Hornets on X.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMousa! The Moose is loose!\u201d said Ball, referencing Diabate\u2019s nickname.<\/p>\n

\u201cAppreciate it, brother. Appreciate it, gang,\u201d replied Diabate.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old center became the eighth player to receive the Hustle Award, which was first given in 2017, joining Patrick Beverley<\/a>, Amir Johnson<\/a>, Marcus Smart<\/a> (three-time winner), Montrezl Harrell<\/a>, Thaddeus Young<\/a>, Alex Caruso<\/a>, and Draymond Green<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the NBA, it is given to a player who \u201cbest utilizes hustle to help their teams win on a nightly basis.\u201d The annual award<\/a> uses a metric to track loose-ball dives, charges taken, deflections, screens set, and shot contests, among others.<\/p>\n

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Diabate signed a three-year contract with the Hornets in 2025.<\/p>\n

Related: Hornets\u2019 best Rudy Gobert trade proposal to Timberwolves in order to take next step<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch Hornets\u2019 LaMelo Ball give Moussa Diabate the NBA Hustle Award trophy appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[328,7730,7,970,684,473,3878,200,685,968,966,326,10510,14023,6357,6,210,14121,203],"class_list":["post-740026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-charlotte-hornets","tag-alex-caruso","tag-amir-johnson","tag-basketball","tag-brandon-miller","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-charlottehornets","tag-draymond-green","tag-hornets","tag-kon-knueppel","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-marcus-smart","tag-miles-bridges","tag-montrezl-harrell","tag-moussa-diabate","tag-nba","tag-patrick-beverley","tag-thaddeus-young","tag-the-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116611645645932597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}