Nathaniel Harris brings Hammond roots and flair to SlamBall revival

Nathaniel Harris gave Lava something SlamBall has always needed in moments like this: a player whose backstory already looked like the sport. A Hammond, Indiana native, Harris brought a local basketball path, a highlight-ready style and the kind of flair that made him easy to recognize as soon as Lava put him on the 2023 roster.

The league listed Harris as a handler at 6-foot-0 and 205 pounds, born Sept. 7, 1995, and said Lava selected him in the 2023 SlamBall draft. He starred at Hammond High School, spent one year at Indiana University Northwest and entered the league with the sort of profile that fits a trampoline-heavy game, where quick changes of direction and explosive finishes matter as much as strength. His social clips, including double between-the-legs dunks and ankle-breaking handles, only sharpened that fit.

What makes Harris more than a résumé line is the way his path folds into SlamBall’s comeback story. WGN-TV reported that he grew up watching the league and later found himself in the revival, a full-circle turn that gave the Hammond native a direct link to the sport he had followed as a kid. Harris said, "I definitely watched it growing up, back in the day. Now, I’m actually playing." That kind of personal connection matters in a league built on spectacle, because it turns a roster spot into a point of entry for fans trying to understand who actually drives the action.

Harris arrived as part of the 2023 SlamBall return, a restart that ESPN said came after a 20-plus-year absence and featured eight teams playing at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas. Lava’s decision to take him in Round 2 put him inside that bigger reconstruction, not on the margins of it. He was not simply a flyer on athleticism. He was a player with a hometown, a school trail and a style that made immediate visual sense in a sport that rewards players who can turn a possession into a collision, a finish or a viral clip.

Eurobasket also identified Harris as a 6-foot point guard from Hammond who most recently played at Indiana University Northwest, reinforcing the same picture from another angle. That consistency matters in SlamBall, where identity is part of the product. Harris looks like the kind of player who helps Lava feel like a real team rather than a collection of stunts, and that makes him one of the more useful names in the league’s revival.