Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls announced Wednesday that point guard Lonzo Ball will miss the remainder of the 2021-22 NBA season because of a left knee injury.

Chicago noted Ball continued to "experience pain with high-level physical activity" while trying to recover from January surgery on the knee.

"He will continue daily treatment and rehabilitation in preparation for the 2022-23 season," the team's statement said.

Ball last played Jan. 14 and had surgery Jan. 28. The Bulls announced the initial timetable for his return was six to eight weeks.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Tuesday that the 24-year-old UCLA product suffered a setback in his recovery, and Chicago head coach Billy Donovan confirmed the guard hadn't made the type of progress the team hoped to see.

"It's disappointing from the standpoint you were hoping that the time he had off would help maybe propel him going forward to do a little bit more," Donovan said. "But that certainly hasn't been the case."

His absence for the rest of the campaign is a major blow to the Bulls, who emerged as a title contender earlier in the season while the roster was at full strength.

Ball averaged 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 3.1 threes and 1.8 steals across 35 appearances in his first season with Chicago. He also tied for 21st among NBA players in FiveThirtyEight's defensive Raptor rating.

The Bulls have shared ball-handling responsibilities in his absence. Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso, Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White have taken turns leading the offense, and that's likely to continue for the duration of the team's playoff run.

Getting Caruso, who was sidelined from mid-January to mid-March, back from injury also helps in terms of defending an opponent's top perimeter scorer.

While Chicago is a more well-rounded team with Ball available, it still has the potential to make some noise in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The Bulls occupy the No. 6 seed with a 45-34 record, but there's plenty of time for movement over the final few games of the regular season.

Chicago hosts the Boston Celtics, a potential first-round opponent, on Wednesday night.

The Chicago Bulls clinched a top-six seed in the 2022 NBA postseason Tuesday by way of the Cleveland Cavaliers' 120-115 loss to the Orlando Magic.

While Chicago has struggled of late, it no longer has to worry about falling to the Eastern Conference play-in tournament thanks to Cleveland's loss.

This marks the first time since 2017 that the Bulls will be in the playoffs, and it's all thanks to the highly productive combination of DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine.

DeRozan, who is in his first season in Chicago, is averaging 28.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game while shooting 50.3 percent from the floor and 35.5 percent from beyond the arc. He has been the perfect complement to LaVine.

However, Chicago's success can also be attributed to the additions of Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, in addition to the emergence of young players like Ayo Dosunmu, Coby White and Patrick Williams.

Unfortunately for the team, Ball has been sidelined since January with a knee injury. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported there is "less and less optimism" he will return this season.

Caruso and Williams also missed significant time this season, but they are both back in the lineup.

While the Bulls are now officially in the playoffs, their work has only just begun. It won't be easy for the franchise to compete with teams like the Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers, so Chicago will need everyone outside of Ball healthy and on their game in order to make the most of the opportunity.

Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball may not return this season from the knee injury that has kept him sidelined since January.

Head coach Billy Donovan told reporters Ball had discomfort when he ramped up his rehab process, and ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported "there's less and less optimism" he will return.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium added that Ball is likely to be shut down for the remainder of the season:

Sources: Bulls guard Lonzo Ball is expected to be shut down for the remainder of the season. Ball has been rehabbing from meniscus surgery in late January, but continues to feel discomfort amid several recovery methods to return to action and a bone bruise in his knee.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 5, 2022

Ball suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee in January with the team later announcing he will undergo arthroscopic surgery that would keep him off the court for six-to-eight weeks.

The 24-year-old also missed five games after entering the health and safety protocols in December.

Ball has been a quality contributor when healthy in his first season in Chicago. Through 35 games, he averaged 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists while shooting 42.3 percent from three-point range.

Injuries still remain a problem for Ball, who has never played more than 63 games in a season.

Hip and thumb issues limited him to just 55 of 72 games last year with the New Orleans Pelicans, overshadowing his career-high 14.6 points per game.

After Ball signed a four-year, $80 million deal in the offseason, Chicago will hope for more durability from the guard going forward.

Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine is expected to miss Tuesday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks because of a left knee injury, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. 

Wojnarowski reported on Feb. 13 that the 26-year-old planned to visit a specialist because of "recurring discomfort" in his left knee. He missed a 106-101 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder the previous night.

The news was the last thing the Bulls needed to hear since their season has taken a turn because of injuries to Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso. Chicago remains fifth in the Eastern Conference at 45-33, but that status could be in serious jeopardy if LaVine is out beyond Tuesday night.

The 2020-21 All-Star is in the final year of his contract and likely playing his way into a max deal this summer. Through 65 appearances, he's averaging 24.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists.

Especially after the Brooklyn Nets traded James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers, there isn't a clear contender that is head and shoulders above the pack in the East. While the Bulls aren't the strongest team on paper, they've shown enough at full strength that an NBA Finals run isn't out of the question.

LaVine will be critical toward Chicago enjoying the kind of postseason that serves as a springboard for more success to come.

The Chicago Bulls announced that DeMar DeRozan will miss Thursday's game against the New Orleans Pelicans because of a left adductor strain.

The Bulls missed the playoffs for a fourth straight season in 2020-21, and the 32-year-old arrived in part to ensure that doesn't happen again this year.

In addition to DeRozan, Chicago signed Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso last offseason. They also acquired Nikola Vucevic in March of the previous season, sending Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr. and two first-round picks to the Orlando Magic.

DeRozan was coming off another solid campaign for the San Antonio Spurs in which he averaged 21.6 points and 6.9 assists while shooting 49.5 percent from the floor. His limitations have been laid bare in the postseason, but the value he can provide on a nightly basis can't be questioned.

Perhaps motivated to change the perception of his game, DeRozan is averaging 27.6 points per game as the Bulls have battled to claim the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

“Am I the MVP? Yeah, I came into this season thinking I was the MVP.”⁰⁰@DeMar_DeRozan talks having an MVP mentality this season with @TaylorRooks ➡️ https://t.co/jNJVwk6JaW pic.twitter.com/crVJbrKuve

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 25, 2022

The impact of the four-time All-Star's injury is magnified because the Bulls have already lost multiple key players.

Chicago watched Ball (torn meniscus) and Caruso (broken wrist) suffer injuries that sidelined them for weeks. As well as head coach Billy Donovan has done to help the team exceed expectations, being without DeRozan could cause the Bulls to lose valuable ground. They trail the first-place Miami Heat by 4.5 games.

A ticket stub from Jackie Robinson's 1947 debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers set a record for the most expensive collectable ticket in history, via Dan Hajducky of ESPN. 

One of the two highest graded Jackie Robinson debut tickets has just sold at @HeritageAuction for $480,000.

A year ago today, one of the six others sold for $40,800. pic.twitter.com/H5gAtsieFs

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) February 27, 2022

The ticket, from Opening Day in 1947, sold for $480,000 on Sunday at Heritage Auctions.

It comes as a second ticket from the same auction also surpassed the previous record of $264,000.

A full ticket from Michael Jordan's first game with the Chicago Bulls in 1984 sold for $468,000 on Sunday. Unlike the checked ticket from Jordan's debut that set the previous record, the latest sale featured an unused ticket.

The seller, Mike Cole, said he was a freshman at Northwestern University when he was gifted two tickets. He didn't find anyone to go to the game with him, so he went himself and saved the other.

"He was 18, in a new city, and no one took him up on going to the game," said Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions. "[In his pocket], it turns from an old memory [into] a lottery ticket."

Both the Dodgers and Bulls tickets were graded by Professional Sports Authenticators before hitting the auction block.

The clock on Zach LaVine's contract has quietly been ticking in Chicago, and Bulls management has operated with a sense of urgency amid that time crunch. 

Since Arturas Karnisovas arrived as president of basketball operations in April 2020, the Bulls have arguably been the most aggressive NBA front office. Chicago's 2021 midseason splurge for Nikola Vucevic stole headlines at last year's trade deadline, and last summer's sign-and-trades for DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball—plus the steal of Alex Caruso from Los Angeles—helped propel LaVine and Chicago to the top of the Eastern Conference with six weeks remaining before the postseason. 

The Bulls falling short of creating a playoff threat before LaVine reached the open market would have been nothing short of a failure. And the early results have been more than promising. LaVine and others in the organization believe their 39-21 record was a direct result from the majority of Chicago's roster reporting to the team facility over a month before the mandatory start of training camp. 

While LaVine has so far been coy in interviews on the subject, all signs are pointing toward a lucrative contract extension this summer.

DeRozan has garnered MVP consideration, but LaVine has always remained the Bulls' central focus ahead of his unrestricted free agency. If LaVine plays his way into an All-NBA bid this season, averaging 24.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.5 assists while shooting nearly 40 percent from three, he'll be eligible for a supermax contract around $245 million over five years. And he'll be worth it. There are only a few two-time All-Stars in the NBA who are 26 years old or younger: Luka Doncic, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum and Devin Booker to name a few. 

For now, this is Chicago's unit, and LaVine told B/R he relished management's aggressive activity thus far. 

What the Bulls can do beyond this season is another question. There's limited flexibility to make further improvements at this juncture, having dispensed a hoard of draft capital. The Bulls have Portland's 2022 first-rounder, thanks to a creative and stubborn stance on Lauri Markkanan's restricted free agency, but that pick is lottery-protected through 2028. Rival teams surely have interest in acquiring injured second-year forward Patrick Williams, but Chicago brass hardly entertained including Williams in any negotiation for Jerami Grant, sources told B/R. 

Amid the All-Star weekend festivities, Bleacher Report sat down with LaVine to discuss Chicago's ongoing makeover, his recruiting efforts to land DeRozan and the Bulls' immediate future. 

 

DeMar was talking with the Lakers guys pretty thoroughly. You were recruiting him behind the scenes as well. I was told DeMar partly wanted to head back East with an eye towards returning to the All-Star Game. What were your conversations like with him this summer, and when did they begin?

During the Olympics it did, and then obviously everything came to fruition after that. Obviously I knew he was definitely in talks with the Lakers and probably a couple of other teams. I'm just happy that we got him. 

 

While you were in Japan? 

While I was overseas, yes. There were some nights, I called him one night at like 3 a.m. because of the time change, just to talk to him about how everything was going on with free agency and how we could make it work. And when I came back, we got together. Obviously the signing happened, we started working out together in the offseason, and we both came to Chicago early because it's a pretty new team. Pretty much everyone's new on the team. We started off really early on in the process. I think that's why we have such good chemistry. 

 

Did Lonzo's situation come together the same way?

Zo's situation was a little bit different, because his was a sign-and-trade, but the same thing. Obviously after he signed, we contacted each other about getting in the gym. We've known each other since UCLA already and just got together and got started working on building this team back to where it should be. 

 

Where in there did you film the Mountain Dew commercial with Zion? 

So me and Zion did the commercial after I got back from the Olympics. Definitely afterwards, like August, I think? It was fun. It was a really cool set playing 2K a little bit and having the Mountain Dew guys come in and create the set. They keep it light and allow us to be ourselves. Even this new one that I just did with Charlie Day, I got to use a little bit of my acting skills. I think he's a little bit better at it than me, but we'll see how it goes in the future. 

 

Are you and Zion still in contact? 

Me and Zion? In contact? No, I mean I see him when we play him.

 

Alright, well obviously Chicago has taken a big shift to the top of the Eastern Conference. That was the goal of the front office when they got there. How clear was that to you from the beginning. They've been very aggressive in what they've done, trading for Vuc, making kind of a clean sweep with DeMar, Lonzo and Alex Caruso. How and when did they communicate that vision to you? They seem kind of willing to cut corners, in a good way, to put talent around you. 

I just think from when they got the job with the Chicago Bulls, they wanted to improve the team. I think they will take every opportunity to improve the team. You respect that as a player because they're competitive as well and they want their organization to always be at the top. I appreciate that about them. They've always been very clear and transparent to me on some of the things that's been going on with the Bulls and the moves that they've made. And that means a lot to me as a player and a guy that they trust to build around. 

 

How important is getting into that postseason environment with this group and making a deep run with these guys before your upcoming contract negotiations? 

For me, it's not even about my contract. I'm a competitor. I want to go to the playoffs and play on the big stage. Contract, everything, that all comes. But I look at it day by day. You can't get to April in a day. You're gonna have to play and compete each and every day to get there, and then once the playoffs come, we gotta go do our thing. You know I'm really excited. I'm really excited to be on that stage, because I haven't been there yet. 

 

The coaching staff and the front office were really talking about how you were really talking about wanting to commit defensively this season. Was that just a mindset switch? Was that watching tape with somebody on staff? What steps did you tangibly make to improve in that regard?

I'm just trying to improve my game. The Olympics this year helped me because we each had to play a role essentially. Everybody on that team scores 25, 26 points per game. We're not all gonna be able to do that on that team. So I really locked in and tried to be the wing defensive guy, pick up guys full court, get steals, take charges, get blocks. Whatever it was just to help the team win and obviously just implement that into the next year. Because you're gonna have to sacrifice a bit of yourself to gain success as a team. 

 

People always talk about their "Welcome to the NBA Moment," right? Well, you're an Olympian now. You're making these calls to recruit DeMar. What was your moment you realized, "I'm in this superstar realm" and these guys are your peers?

I mean, I would never say that I'm in that realm. I would just say that I've always viewed myself as a top tier player. I put the work in on the court. I've showed it over the last three, four years. And I just attribute that to my hard work. If you expect yourself to be here, it's something that you have to go out there and show each and every day. I feel like I've done that. I've thought I could be one of the players in the game since I got into the league. 

 

Was there a moment when you believed you could be that guy to shoulder a team through the playoffs?

Yeah, that's what you work for. Obviously we haven't made the playoffs and we're on track to do that now. But I go into the offseason each and every year trying to put my team in those positions and I'm glad that we're on track to do that now. 

 

Guys like Caruso and DeMar who have made deep runs, what's been their message about how to continue to move this thing forward?

You just gotta be consistent everyday and have championship habits. Each and every day you have to have a goal in mind and get to that mindset of we're building for something. It's not just, "Oh, we won or lost this game." You have to have championship habits each and every day. I think everybody's a lot more locked in, a lot more vocal. Through shootarounds, scripts, after games, guys talk about what we could've done better or what we did well and could still do adjustments on. That's definitely a little bit different. 

 

From the outside, people around the league were really skeptical of this roster's fit. DeMar and Vuc both like to work out the high post. You and DeMar both like to create with the ball in your hands. Was there kind of a mind-melding effort, a collaboration on what your offense was going to look like, how all the pieces could come together, and sort of defy the doubters?

I think we came into camp early and we're allowing everybody to do what they do best. We're not getting in each other's way. There's no one on the team that has a selfish bone in their body. We've all sacrificed a little bit of something for the greater good, and I think everybody's eating from it.