(670 The Score) Bulls guard Lonzo Ball is on track to return to full-contact, full-speed five-on-five basketball action four to five months from now, his father, LaVar, said in an interview on the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Thursday evening.
Ball, 26, hasn’t played in a game since Jan. 14, 2022 as he has suffered from a debilitating left knee injury that has necessitated three surgeries during his tenure in Chicago. The most recent operation was a cartilage transplant in his left knee in March 2023, which represented a last-ditch effort to save his basketball career.
LaVar believes his son will indeed return to the court in the 2024-’25 season.
“I know he’s going to come back and do his thing,” LaVar said. “But everybody wants to rush and be like, ‘He’s got to be ready next month, he’s got to be ready this month.’ The thing is, he’s not having pain. So what happens is, if you haven’t played in a while, you’ve got to get your body strong again. So it’s just about getting strong.”
In early March, Ball was cleared for advanced rehab activities, which notably included sprinting and cutting. One big hurdle that remains is taking contact in the uncontrolled environment of five-on-five basketball, and LaVar suggested that Ball could do that in August or early September, which would be about a month or so before the Bulls start training camp ahead of the 2024-’25 season.
Ball has been doing much of his rehab in Los Angeles but is back in Chicago and with the Bulls this week.
LaVar also shared his belief that the Bulls erred early on in Lonzo’s rehab, back in early 2022 after he had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.
“I think so,” LaVar said. “On the fact that the first time that he had the first surgery (in January 2022), they had him on the track so quick and on the treadmill. I’m like, ‘Why are you not in the water?’ You got to be in the water first. The water is therapeutic.”
LaVar stressed that was his opinion, not his son’s.
Ball is in the third season of a four-year, $80-million deal that he inked in summer 2021, when the Bulls landed him in a sign-and-trade deal with the Pelicans. Ball was the catalyst of the Bulls’ success in the first half of the 2021-’22 season before he was hurt, averaging 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists while shooting 42.3% from 3-point range.
If the belief is that Ball can’t play again next season, the Bulls will have the option of applying for a career-ending injury provision that would clear his salary from their books if an independent medical panel ruled in their favor. The Bulls were granted a $10.2-million disabled player exception this season for Ball’s absence, but they didn’t use it.
Asked if the Bulls have ever brought up the topic of the career-ending injury provision in conversations with Ball or his representation, LaVar responded that he didn’t know what discussions they’ve had on that front.
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