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"At least now, I got the surgery. We got a plan
moving forward. We've been on plan. I'm on track," Ball said
during an interview with Trae Young on the "From the Point by
Trae Young" podcast. "Hopefully, everything works out. I just
leave it up to God and do the best I can and live with the
results."
The Bulls have known about Ball's repeated lost season. Team
vice president Arturas Karnisovas indicated as much on draft
night in June.
The injury proved especially frustrating because Ball was fresh
off signing a four-year, $80 million deal with the Bulls in
2021, but played only 35 games that season. When he went down,
Chicago led the East at 27-13.
Without him, the Bulls lost in the first round of the playoffs
that season, and then lost in the Eastern Conference play-in
tourney last season.
"I feel bad, just for the [Bulls'] GMs because I feel like they
made the perfect team around me. I felt like that was the most
I've ever been involved in an organization. And I finally got
the perfect team that I felt like could fit my game and play my
way and really just do what I wanted to do," Ball said.
Uncertainty about his injury made matters worse, he said.
"When I first got hurt, we didn't really know what it was. I was
seeing all type of different doctors and stuff. I was just kind
of going up and down. That was really hard for me because I just
didn't know what the next day was going to be like," Ball said.
Ball, whom the Lakers took second overall in 2017, played two
seasons for Los Angeles and two with the New Orleans Pelicans
before signing with Chicago.
He has averaged 11.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 6.2 assists in
just under 33 minutes per game. He has been a starter in 239 of
his 252 career games.
--Field Level Media
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