Lonzo Ball reflects on how devastating knee injury altered his career, shuts down retirement talk

Then, disaster struck. Ball sustained a knee injury initially expected to keep the guard out six weeks . But he dealt with complications in his recovery, leading to at least two additional surgeries on his left knee. All told, the guard missed over 1,000 days — and two full seasons — before he returned to play for the Bulls during the 2024-25 NBA season.

After an injury of that nature, Ball's performance wasn't the same. He spoke about facing that reality, and revealed just how much his career was altered by that injury , during Tuesday's episode of the "Ball in the Family" podcast, which featured Gilbert Arenas.

Deep into the podcast, Arenas asked Ball how he was doing physically. Ball admitted he needed to manage his knee, though said he could "play if I want to, but still got to deal with it every day."