What is a Baller?

Webster Dictionary states,” A talented basketball player. Comes from the word ball. A form of praise. Mostly used just implying that a person has lots of money, or that the person is rich.”

Right? If you have the swagger and confidence to be the best at what you do, then you’re a Baller. No one can tell you that you are not a Baller if you feel that’s what you are.

Who makes Ballers? Where are Ballers made? Where can you find a Baller?

You and the media help make Ballers. The “Human Highlight Film”, “Air Canada”, “King James” and “Magic” are just some of the names that Ballers are given, not to themselves but by other individuals. Some are made in local playgrounds (most famous of all, “The Rucker”). Some are made by playing against some of the best and beating the best. Some are discovered in high school gyms every Friday night of the season. A few are found around the diamond between the dirt and the tobacco spitting. You can always find at least one in a helmet and shoulder pads. Some are shaken out of the bushes in small towns. Some will never make the primetime but are local legends like Chris George from Blakely, Georgia who works at the town's peanut company unloading boxes.

What makes a person a Baller?

Is it just his athletic ability on the court or is it the way he carries himself off the court that makes him a Baller?

If O.J. Mayo and the eighth grader from Brooklyn, Lance Stevenson, never faced or had the opportunity to dual at the Reebok ABCD camp. Does that not make Mayo a Baller? The game was a battle of the best of their respective class (Mayo 2007 and Stevenson 2009). Both would go at each other on both ends of the courts, creating a one-on-one spectacle, rather than a team game. Mayo and Lance would trash talk the entire game. Stevenson would be the crowd favorite due to the fact he is from the New Jersey/New York area. The atmosphere did not phase Mayo though. With the clock running down for the last seconds of the game, O.J. would have a wide open three-pointer but chose to call Lance over to guard him. As Lance approaches to put up the defense, Mayo would drain a three-pointer in his face. The crowd would go crazy, for on this day the house belongs to Mayo. Everyone knows that Mayo walks on water and blue printed the design for the basketball, but what they didn’t know was that a Baller emerge in Lance Stevenson “The Next Big Thing”.

Notes to anyone challenging:  Don’t squeeze the juice.

Mike Vick. Definition: Baller.

How many Sundays do you turn on the T.V. just to see Vick make the opposing teams defense look stupid? Every Sunday, cause Vicks a Baller.