The road to recovery is even more unlikely for Lonzo Ball after the Chicago Bulls guard revealed he underwent another rare procedure last year in an attempt to return from a yearslong left knee injury.
Ball is attempting to become the first U.S. athlete to successfully return to competition from a knee cartilage transplant after missing the last two seasons with a confounding injury. In an episode of his podcast “The WAE Show” released Friday, Ball disclosed that he also received a meniscus transplant at the same time as the cartilage procedure.
“To make a long story short, ultimately it started with a meniscus tear, basically started on the Lakers when I tore it the first time,” Ball said. “Tore it a couple more times to a point where there was no more meniscus left, cartilage was gone and the bone was messed up, so I had to get a new meniscus from a donor.”
Similarly to the cartilage transplant, no NBA player has received a meniscus transplant and successfully returned to the league. The Bulls now face two looming questions as Ball nears the third year of his injury: Will he ever be able to return? And even if he does, will he be the same player as before?
It has been more than two years since Ball played in an NBA game. The meniscus injury occurred in January 2022. After the Bulls insisted he would return before the end of that season, Ball’s recovery lingered into the ensuing year.
“We were trying to figure out what the problem was so that was a wasted year,” Ball said. “But now we’re here.”
Ball made significant improvements in the 14 months since his third and final procedure, including running and performing basic basketball drills without pain. He has not returned to five-on-five scrimmages, which will be a crucial step for his recovery. The Bulls remain hopeful he will be able to begin contact drills by the end of the summer, which would position him to return to team activities at the start of the 2024-25 season.
But the reality of Ball’s injury only is bleaker with the acknowledgement of this additional procedure.
