After three knee surgeries and more than two years away from the game, Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball finally made it back to the court.
Ball checked in to his first NBA game of any kind in more than two years on Wednesday night when the Bulls hosted the Minnesota Timberwolves in a preseason game, which marked his first game since Jan. 14, 2022. He got a huge ovation from the United Center crowd, and then he hit a corner 3-pointer almost immediately.
Ball finished with 10 points, one assist and one rebound. He shot 4-of-6 from the field, and played just 15 minutes — which is one less than the restriction he went into the game with.
“Long, really long,” Ball said about his recovery on Wednesday after the team’s shootaround, via ESPN’s Jamal Collier. “But looking back on it, it went a lot faster than I thought. … Them telling me 18 more months recovery [after my third surgery], it sounded crazy in the moment, but now I’m here. It’s all behind me now.”
Ball went down with a meniscus injury in his left knee in Jan. 2022, and he underwent an arthroscopic surgery to repair it. Soon after, though, he started feeling discomfort in his knee and ended up needing another surgery that fall. The Bulls had hoped that he could return before the end of the 2022-23 campaign, but they shut him down in February 2023. He ended up getting a third surgery that March, which then kept him out all of last season.
In total, Ball has played in just 35 games over the last three years.
Though the repeated setbacks and surgeries seem like enough to make someone want to walk away from the sport completely, Ball believes he can still help the Bulls win. The former No. 2 overall draft pick averaged a career-high 14.6 points, 5.7 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game with the New Orleans Pelicans during the 2020-21 campaign, which was his last full season.
“It’s not the same body I started off with,” Ball said. “But I think I can still be productive and effective on the court. That’s why I’m still trying to play.”
It’s unclear how the Bulls will utilize Ball this season, especially early on as he gets back into the swing of things. He’s dealt with soreness in his knee throughout the preseason, too. While he said that was expected, it’s going to have to be something both he and the Bulls monitor all season.
“We have a good handle right now, but I think it’s going to change throughout the year,” he said. “Every day is going to be a different challenge we just have to overcome.”
He may not be the same player he once was, but Ball is finally playing basketball once again. No matter what happens the rest of his career, this was the first step.
