The three-year anniversary of Lonzo Ball’s ill-fated knee injury passed without fanfare Tuesday night.
For the past two years, the anniversary served as an ominous reminder of the depth of uncertainty surrounding the Chicago Bulls point guard’s future in the sport. When the first year passed, it felt foreboding. The second year seemed to carry a weight of impossibility — surely, no player could come back from this.
But when the third year passed, it was hardly mentioned. Ball came off the bench Tuesday to log 11 points, eight rebounds, six assists, a steal and a block against the New Orleans Pelicans, one of the few positive performances in a grisly Bulls loss.
There isn’t a better story in the NBA this season than Ball’s. Through patience and perseverance, the guard overcame a confounding injury to regain his stature as one of the best glue guards in the league — and he’s paving the way for knee injury recovery throughout the sport in the process.
So it feels strange that there isn’t an official mechanism for the NBA to celebrate Ball’s recovery this season. Ball isn’t a proper candidate for the Most Improved Player award — mostly because he hasn’t improved. Instead, he’s accomplished the miraculous feat of returning from a 1,006-day absence with barely a hitch in his step.
Ball’s statistics are deflated due to his 25-minute playing-time restriction. But a quick glance at his per-36 statistics — which measure output per 36 minutes, providing a more informative barometer for lower-volume players — showcases just how efficiently the guard is utilizing those minutes. Ball is rebounding better, bolstering the offense in assists and averaging nearly one more steal per 36 minutes than in the 2021-22 season.
This isn’t an attempt to shoehorn Ball into the Most Improved Player debate (trust me, it was hard enough trying to convince other voters that Coby White was the best candidate for the award last year). But Ball’s return this season has made something clear: This league needs a Comeback Player of the League award.
This isn’t a new concept — the NBA introduced a Comeback Player of the Year award in 1981. The league presented the trophy for six seasons before phasing it out in 1987 in favor of the Most Improved Player award. NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik gave a blunt explanation for the decision to discontinue the award: “It became very difficult to determine with any kind of clarity exactly what the requirements were.”
This lack of clarity surrounding the award became immediately obvious in its initial year, when Bernard King was crowned the Comeback Player of the Year following a suspension by the Utah Jazz for the majority of the 1979-80 season after pleading guilty to forcible sexual abuse. Other players received the ensuing five awards for less controversial comebacks — injuries, contract disputes. But the consistent presence of drug rehabilitation and criminal offenses dominating the background of potential candidates for the award led the league to eventually abandon it.
The solution here seems staggeringly simple — don’t award Comeback Player of the Year to anyone who was credibly accused of a sex crime or any crime at all. Reducing the pool of those candidates certainly would not eliminate the necessity of the award.
From Klay Thompson to Shaun Livingston to Ball, the NBA has been filled with stories of players overcoming tremendous physical and personal adversity to return to the court. And similar awards in football, hockey, soccer and baseball have provided a platform for leagues to highlight stories that might otherwise fall through the cracks of national coverage.
This argument is too late for Ball, but that’s OK. Ask the guard about any award and he would shrug it off. Ball has never been the type of player to seek external validation. The things he wants to win are simpler — playoff games, a ring.
And Ball receives a celebration of his own every game. Whether it’s home at the United Center or on an opposing court halfway across the country, the crowd begins to rumble whenever Ball steps up to the scorers table to check in. His first entry to the game is always greeted by a cheer from home and away fans alike, even now that it has become routine midway through the season.
This is all that Ball needs to celebrate. He’s healthy. He’s hooping. He’s having fun. And with Ball back on the court, the NBA is a little bit more exciting.
