NEWSLETTER
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When it comes to Lonzo Ball and his knee, I keep trying to tell myself, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Over the last few months, Lonzo and the Ball family have given nothing but optimistic reports about his journey rehabbing his injured knee. The latest update that dropped today via Lonzo and LiAngelo Ball’s “What An Experience” podcast was no different. On Friday, the eldest Ball brother shared a couple more nuggets about his recovery process, and this one was quite positive.
Lonzo Ball Plans To Return For Opening Night
If you are unable to listen to the podcast, Lonzo is asked, “Will you be in a Bulls jersey at the start of the ’24 season” to which he responds:
Yes. I firmly believe it. That’s the plan that I’m on and I haven’t had any setbacks. I expect to play the first game.
So that right there itself is a bold proclamation from Lonzo. When he updated us 10 days ago on his same podcast, Ball was optimistic but wouldn’t flat-out say that he was planning to be back opening night or give a firm timeline. He said then that he feels “70 percent” and “good enough to play” which are both encouraging, but don’t exactly confirm he was going to be ready. I guess 10 days makes a big difference because now he’s saying he plans to be in the lineup come October.
Now, we, of course, have to take everything coming from Lonzo or his family with a grain of salt. Not because they would intentionally mislead anyone, but because, of course, if Lonzo is feeling better, he’s going to say he thinks he’ll be back on the court. He’s a competitor, and he hasn’t played since January 14th, 2022. I’m sure he’s not only itching to prove that he can still play, but entering the last year of his contract, he probably wants to prove that he still has some time left in his NBA career.
As I said to start this post, as much as I want to see Lonzo Ball come back full strength and be the point guard this team has needed since…well…January 14, 2022, I’m going to be in “I’ll believe it when I see it” mode. I’m so glad that he says he’s feeling better, and I’m rooting like hell for him because he seems like a good dude and a good teammate.
When he was healthy, he was a heck of a player for the Bulls. But all of that said, even if he is in the lineup for game one, it will have been over 500 days since his last NBA game, so expecting him to come in and not miss a beat is unrealistic.
Lonzo Ball Breaks Down His Injury
For the first time, Lonzo Ball on this show also broke down his actual injury and what exactly happened. He said that this injury really got started back when he hurt his knee with the Lakers.
Basically started with the Lakers when I tore [the meniscus] for the first time. Tore it a couple more times to a point to where there was no meniscus left and bone on bone was rubbing. So the cartilage was gone and the bone was messed up. So I had to get a new meniscus from a donor.”
Lonzo Ball, The WAE Show
So I didn’t graduate from Illinois Wesleyan with a degree in Biology or go down the path of medical school, clearly. But I had absolutely zero idea you could have a meniscus transplant. But given that Ball has gone through that and even more, the fact that he’s getting close to playing NBA basketball again is unreal. I’m happy for him that he’s both physically feeling better and mentally seeming to be in a good place. It can’t be easy to go from this outstanding athlete to missing almost two years because one body part keeps failing you.
Whether or not it’s opening night, it’s starting to feel incredibly likely that, barring any setbacks, we’ll see Lonzo Ball in a Bulls uniform again next year. Is that good for the Bulls’ salary cap situation? Probably not. Is his return enough to make this team more than just a Play-In team? Also unlikely. But as a person, it’s impossible not to root for Lonzo and hope he comes back strong and proves so many doubters wrong.
If you’d like to listen to the full episode, you can do so on YouTube here.
