Lonzo Ball delivered an emphatic message Tuesday as stories proceed to fill suspicion situation his talent to go back from a left knee trauma: “I’m coming back.”

Ball posted a video on social media based on a record by way of ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who claimed on Tuesday’s version of “First Take” that Ball continues to be suffering to be on one?s feet up 5 months upcoming his 3rd operation to handle the knee trauma.

“I’m incredibly, incredibly sad for Lonzo,” Smith mentioned. “It’s really sad what happened to him. Something went wrong in terms of these procedures that he has had. I don’t think he’ll ever be the same based off of what we’re seeing and hearing. I’ve heard that it’s even hard for him to get up from the sitting position.”

Ball’s reaction was once delivered poolside from his house in Los Angeles date status and sitting again and again from a chair on his injured left leg.

“Who are your sources bro?” Ball mentioned within the video. “You gotta stop yapping. I actually like you man. I don’t even know you like that, but I like you. I’m coming back, man.”

The submit was once probably the most self belief Ball has proven in his fitness. However the moment rest murky for the Bulls’ most popular foundation level shield, who’s not going to peer the courtroom for a 2nd consecutive season.

Ball has now not performed basketball since Jan. 14, 2022. Within the 19 months since, he has gone through 3 surgical procedures — maximum not too long ago a cartilage transplant, a unprecedented process that hasn’t ever ended in a participant’s go back to the NBA.

Even though he isn’t totally dominated out for the 2023-24 season, vice chairman of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas showed in June the Bulls haven’t any expectation for Ball to go back this season.

“Going into the offseason, our expectation is that he’s not coming back next season and he’s going to continue on his recovery,” Karnišovas mentioned. “If he comes back, it would be great, but we’re just going to treat this offseason and getting ready for the season that he’s not going to be back.”

Ball’s long medication has been a supply of unsureness and frustration during the Bulls group because the onset of his trauma.

In an look on Trae Younger’s podcast “From the Point” on Monday, Ball shared his personal unhappiness within the hesitation created for the left-overs of the Bulls roster by way of his not on time go back.

“It’s going to be a big what-if,” Ball mentioned. “I feel bad, just for the (front office) 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. … I felt like we had a chance and never got to see what it was.”