Chicago Bulls star guard Lonzo Ball has not suited up in a game since all the way back in January of 2022.
Ball, 25, has undergone multiple surgeries since suffering a torn meniscus in his left knee. It was just recently that Chicago ruled him out for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.
We now have more information on Ball’s injury. It’s about as bad of an update as we could provide.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Ball will undergo a third surgery on his ailing left knee. It is expected to potentially cost him the entire 2023-24 season. Charania indicates that the “sides are optimistic of the procedure reviving Ball’s career.”
This is just brutal news for the former No. 2 overall pick and his team. Lonzo Ball was actually in the midst of a career-best season with Chicago in 2021-22 when he went down with the injury. It was his first season in the Windy City after being acquired in a sign-and-trade from the New Orleans Pelicans the previous summer.
- Lonzo Ball stats (2021-22): 13.0 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 5.1 APG, 1.8 SPG, 42% 3-point
Immediately ahead of the 2022-23 season, Ball himself provided a negative update on his rehab from the original meniscus injury. It could now be seen as a harbinger of what would come.
“Literally, I really can’t run. I can’t run or jump,” Lonzo Ball said. “There’s a range from, like, 30 to 60 degrees when my knee is bent that I have, like, no force and I can’t, like, catch myself. Until I can do those things I can’t play.”
Ball went on to say that this is something he’s never dealt with. “Even the doctors are surprised a little bit.”
That’s not great.
We’re obviously hoping for the best on this front as Ball prepares for yet another surgery.