Lonzo Ball reflects on how devastating knee injury altered his career, shuts down retirement talk

Fresh off signing a four-year, $85 million deal with the Chicago Bulls, Lonzo Ball was living up to his lofty expectations in his first season with the team. Through the team’s first 40 games, Ball was the team’s jack of all trades, and was a major reason the Bulls had a 27-13 record.

Then, disaster struck. Ball sustained a knee injury initially expected to keep the guard out six weeks. But Ball dealt with complications in his recovery, leading to at least two additional surgeries on his left knee. All told, the guard missed over 1,000 days — and two full seasons — before he returned to play for the Bulls during the 2024-25 NBA season.

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After an injury of that nature, Ball’s performance wasn’t the same. He spoke about facing that reality, and revealed just how much his career was altered by that injury, during Tuesday’s episode of the “Ball in the Family” podcast, which featured Gilbert Arenas.

Deep into the podcast, Arenas asked Ball how he was doing physically. Ball admitted he needed to manage his knee, though said he could “play if I want to, but still got to deal with it every day.”

Ball said he played basketball the day before the podcast and that his knee was swollen. He said he would stretch, ice it and do yoga to help it recover.

Ball also explained how the injury affects his play on the court, saying there are certain stances he can take where the knee doesn’t bother him. Other times, though, he feels off balance and has lost the ability to stop himself abruptly while driving.

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When asked how the injury impacted him mentally, Ball said he was grateful to play nine seasons in the NBA.

“I feel like I gave everything I had to hoop and I feel like everything I got in my life is because of hoop. So I’m grateful to even make it to the league and even be able to play for nine years. That’s how I look at it …

“Your game changes. You see where you’re supposed to be and you physically can’t get there. You gotta be comfortable with yourself, to be honest with you. I feel like, to be honest, I don’t think I ever got to my peak. And it’s like, damn, that s*** sucks, but at the same time,…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/lonzo-ball-reflects-on-how-devastating-knee-injury-altered-his-career-shuts-down-retirement-talk-170633240.html

Author : Chris Cwik

Publish date : 2026-09-23 17:06:00

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