Lonzo Ball Sprains Wrist in Latest Career Road Block

Depending on when their heads hit the pillow Tuesday, it’s conceivable that fans of either Chicago professional sports team owned by Jerry Reinsdorf were unaware until Wednesday of some breaking news.

Or was one item not exactly novel?

While the Chicago White Sox hiring Will Venable as their next manager qualifies as fresh, word that oft-injured Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball has another injury issue is the opposite. In fact, it might seem like a rerun of “The Twilight Zone.”

Peruse responses to tweets about Ball’s sprained right wrist and his looming reevaluation in 10 days, though, and it’s clear some Bulls fans don’t view the development with the brittle Ball as overly brutal. Until further notice, that’s the way to be.

Ball joined the Bulls before the 2021-22 season and started 35 games before sustaining an injury to his left knee in January 2022. He required multiple surgeries on the knee, ultimately keeping him sidelined until Chicago’s Oct. 23 season opener in New Orleans.

Various flashes of optimism emerged in the interim, but never were enough to get Ball back in the fold as the Bulls wallowed in perennial purgatory of pursuing a spot in the play-in tournament.

Chicago once fashioned Ball as a distributor alongside DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic; it traded DeRozan in the offseason and ostensibly would shop LaVine and Vucevic for the right offer.

Against New Orleans and throughout the early season, “left knee surgery/injury management” accompanied Ball’s name on the injury report. He missed the Bulls’ win in Milwaukee two days after the Pelicans game as a planned precaution.

On Monday, Ball upped his minutes to a season-high 18 in the Bulls’ comeback win in Memphis. He was a team-best plus-16 and sparked further imagination when coach Billy Donovan inserted him alongside fellow playmaker Josh Giddey for a stretch of nearly five minutes.

“Loved playing with him,” Giddey said. “Want to keep doing it more and more. He’s so smart and so unselfish.”

For the moment, Ball is also so unavailable, although the Bulls don’t believe the wrist injury to be serious.

Yes, skeptics will be quick to point out the club used similar verbiage as Ball endured injuries in his early days with the team, but this latest assessment could add up. The wrist injury didn’t carry any postgame narratives covering Chicago’s 126-123 victory in Memphis, which saw the Bulls match a franchise record with 25 made 3-pointers.

In fact, Ball even spoke about perseverance after Chicago trailed by as many as 20 points.

“Just got to stay the course,” he said. “It’s a brand new team, a lot of young guys. Sometimes the shots are not going to fall, sometimes people are going to hit tough ones. Just got to stick with it through four quarters.”

Ball apparently followed his own advice. On Tuesday, the team reported he injured his wrist in the first quarter, but his contributions in the fourth helped the Bulls to a 33-23 scoring edge that allowed them to take the lead before keeping the Grizzlies at bay.

“Ball will be re-evaluated in 10 days with updates provided as appropriate,” the Bulls said.

Precedent may suggest otherwise, but in light of other positive early developments with the team, fans can only hope for the best.