After three knee surgeries and more than two years away from the game, Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball is finally ready to make his comeback.
in more than two years on Wednesday night when the Bulls host the Minnesota Timberwolves in a preseason game. He will be limited to just 16 minutes maximum in that game, his first since January 14, 2022.
“Long, really long,” Ball said of his recovery Wednesday after the team’s shootaround, . “But looking back on it, it went a lot faster than I thought … They told me 18 more months of recovery. [after my third surgery]it sounded crazy at the time, but now I’m here. It’s all behind me now.”
Ball went down with a meniscus tear in his left knee in January 2022, and he underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair it. Soon after, however, he began to feel discomfort in his knee and ended up needing another surgery that fall. The Bulls hoped 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 for the entirety of last season.
In all, Ball has played in just 35 games over the last three years.
Although the repeated setbacks and surgeries seem enough to make someone want to walk away from the sport entirely, 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 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 use Ball this season, especially early on when he gets back into the swing of things. He also dealt with pain in his knee during the preseason. While he said that’s to be expected, it will have to be something he and the Bulls monitor throughout the season.
“We have a good handle now, but I think it will change during the year,” he said. “Every day will be a different challenge that we just have to overcome.”
He may not be the same player he once was, but Ball is finally playing basketball again. No matter what happens the rest of his career, this was the first step.
