Lonzo Ball’s NBA return from devastating knee injuries is basketball’s coolest story

Lonzo Ball couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs. The Chicago Bulls point guard had already been out eight months for an injury that was originally supposed to keep him out eight weeks. “Left knee soreness” was the first injury diagnosis by the team. A week later, it was announced Ball would have arthroscopic knee surgery. From there, Ball was diagnosed with a bone bruise under his knee, had to have his meniscus fully replaced, and eventually had to get a rare cartilage transplant.

When Ball played his last game, on Jan. 14, 2022 in a home loss to the Golden State Warriors, the Bulls were off to an incredible start, sitting at No. 1 in the Eastern Conference with a 27-13 record. Without Ball as their connective tissue, the entire team lapsed into sub-mediocrity, missing the skeleton key that made their disjointed roster work.

Three surgeries and 1,006 days later, Lonzo Ball finally returned to an NBA court. Now 26 years old, Ball debuted for the Bulls in the preseason on Wednesday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Just taking the court was a monumental victory for Ball, but he gave Chicago so much more than that.

In 15 minutes of playing time, Ball finished with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field, 2-of-4 shooting from three-point range. He also had one rebound, one assist, one steal, and one block. After checking in during the first quarter, it only took 43 seconds for Ball to hit his first shot and send the United Center into a frenzy.

Ball hit an even deeper three a few minutes later. He made a beautiful cut to hit a reverse layup, too.

The defensive end is often more physical than the offensive end in the NBA, especially for a player like Ball who was such a wiz defensively when he was healthy. During his short stint in his return, it looked like his defense didn’t miss a beat. Here he is blocking Julius Randle:

And here he is making one of his signature off-ball rotations to force a steal, and then leap into the sidelines to save the ball:

The Bulls have changed so much during Ball’s 1,000+ days on the sidelines. The team that was the No. 1 seed in the East with him back in 2022 was summarily dismissed without him in a five-game first round series to the Bucks. Chicago missed the playoffs in 2023 and 2024. Everyone else in the world could see the need for the Bulls to blow up the roster and start a rebuild, but the front office tried to sneak into the playoffs instead of prioritizing future assets.

Finally, lead executive Arturas Karnisovas had no choice this summer. He traded Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Josh Giddey in a deal we slammed for Chicago. He let go of DeMar DeRozan to the Sacramento Kings with only two second round picks coming back. Andre Drummond signed with the Philadelphia 76ers just months after Karnisovas turned down multiple second round picks from Philly to get him.

The Bulls are still very much half-finished with their teardown. Zach LaVine remains on the roster despite spending a year on the trade block, with no other team willing to take on the three years, $138 million left on his contract. The Bulls shopped Nikola Vucevic, too, but they also overpaid him to such a significant degree (two years, $40 million remaining) that he has no outside market. Veterans like Jevon Carter and Torrey Craig serve no purpose on a rebuilding team, either.

This team seems destined to hunt for stars at the top of the loaded 2025 and 2026 NBA Draft classes. At least that’s what they should do, but with Karnisovas, it’s hardly a given.

The Bulls are deeply irrelevant, and they are going to be for some time if they can stay disciplined enough to take their medicine. Ball’s return then isn’t so much about saving the Bulls anymore. Now, it’s about seeing one of the league’s most idiosyncratic talents return for the greater good of the game.

I wrote about Lonzo Ball for the first time from the 2016 McDonald’s All-American Game. At the time, he was firing full court passes and deep threes on a juggernaut Chino Hills High School team playing alongside his younger brothers LiAngelo and LaMelo. Ball didn’t look much like a traditional point guard who controls the ball, puts pressure on the rim, and runs carefully curated sets from the coaching staff. Instead, Ball was a master at improvisation, seeing the game in a fifth dimension with an innate sense of spacing, timing, and possibility.

Ball was a one-and-done at UCLA, and the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft to his hometown Los Angeles Lakers. He would be a homegrown star to lead the franchise out of its post-Kobe Bryant era, at least until LeBron James decided to sign there. Ball was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans as part of the Anthony Davis deal. There, ace shooting coach Fred Vinson fixed the hitch in his jump shot. Suddenly, Ball was one of the best three-point shooters in the world.

At his peak, Ball was a masterful passer, a deadeye shooter, and one of the NBA’s best defensive guards. Lonzo didn’t lock up at the point of attack the way we traditionally think of stout defensive guards. Instead, Ball was at his best as a free safety, roaming around the court to force turnovers and ignite transition opportunities. On one possession, Ball would be holding up in the post against more powerful forwards. On the next, he’d be zooming in for a quick trap and swiping the ball free.

The Bulls gave Ball the game ball after his preseason return. What a cathartic moment for the player and the team.

Basketball didn’t feel the same with Lonzo stapled to the sidelines in what should have been the prime of his career. He embodied the soul of the game as much as any player of his generation. No athlete in American professional sports has ever come back from needing a knee cartilage replacement. Few have ever come back after missing more than 1,000 days with an injury.

There remains a long journey ahead of Ball, and the reality is it can fall apart at any moment. But for Ball to get back on the court and be immediately effective after such a long absence is perhaps the feel-good of this NBA season. This sport just wasn’t the same without him.