UCLA Basketball: Dispiriting Update On Lonzo Ball's Attempted NBA Return

The one-and-done Bruin is in trouble.

UCLA Bruins-turned-Chicago Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball has played just 35 games for his latest NBA team since agreeing to a four-year, $80 million deal with the club in a 2021 sign-and-trade.

The former No. 2 overall draft pick in 2017 (right ahead of Jayson Tatum) incurred a left knee injury in January 2022, and has undergone three surgeries since to treat it, most recently a March 2023 cartilage transplant.

Per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, though Ball was supposed to start sprinting on the knee in January, he has yet to actually do that. We're two days away from March.

“He is doing some shooting, some running, some jumping. He hasn’t done any sprinting yet, that I know,” head coach Billy Donovan confirmed.

Donovan tried to dance around the fact that Ball has missed yet another expected recovery goal post.

“They talked about that, and (sprinting) was kind of a goal,” he said. “I do think the one thing that has been a priority right now so he does not get set back is he needs to develop more strength in his leg. Because of him having that surgery and being off his leg so long, before he’s really able to ramp up I think they want him to get to a place physically that relates to his quad strength, hamstring strength, before he starts to really do that. I don’t want to say it’s a holdup, but that’s where they want to get him to. In terms of what he’s doing, he feels better.”

Ball was ruled out for the year ahead of the start of the 2023-24 NBA season. He has a $21.4 million player option for the (mercifully) final year of his contract with Chicago. Whether or not he plays next year, you can bet the Chino Hills native will get paid.