Lonzo Ball always tries to keep a smile on his face.
Despite likely facing another missed season, the former number two pick is trying to stay positive with the news, and letting his fans know in an Instagram post that they should do the same.
“Try to smile thru it all,” Ball wrote in his caption.
In the post, Ball had pictures of his mother Tina, daughter Zoey, brother LiAngelo, and girlfriend Ally Rossel, among others – all with smiles on their faces.
Ball came into the NBA as one of the most hyped point guard prospects after being drafted to the Los Angeles Lakers by Magic Johnson back in 2017.
The guard started off slow in his career due to an awkward jump shot and some injury issues, but he did show flashes of potential by putting up multiple triple-doubles as a rookie.
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But after Ball fixed his shot — he improved 21 percentage points on free throws alone from 2019-20 to the 2020-21 season — he started to fulfill the promise he showed early on with career averages of around 12 points, six rebounds, six assists and over a steal a night.
However, the injuries kept coming, and during the guard’s first year in Chicago back in the 2021-22 season, he suffered a torn meniscus that sidelined him for the remainder of a season as he was leading the Bulls to a number one seed in the East before the injury.
The injury also kept Ball out for the entirety of the 2022-23 season and according to executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas, he is not expected to suit up in 2024 either.
“Our expectation is that he’s not going to be back next season,” Karnišovas said in a press conference following Thursday’s NBA draft.
The situation with Ball has been so dire that the team made a request to the league for a disabled player exception worth $10.2 million due to the UCLA product’s injury, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Things have been looking bleak for the highly-touted guard, but somehow he is finding a way to smile through the pain.
