After missing the past two-plus seasons with a knee injury, Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball has exercised the $21.4 million option on his contract for the 2024-2025 season, sources told ESPN on Saturday.
Ball has undergone three surgeries on his left knee, the most recent a cartilage transplant in 2023. There remains some guarded hope that he could make a return next season, but there are no assurances that damaged knee will allow for him to play again.
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Ball, 26, signed an original four-year, $80 million deal as part of a sign-and-trade with New Orleans in the summer of 2021. After a fantastic start that had the Bulls leading the Eastern Conference in 2021-2022, Ball averaged 13 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.8 steals before a knee injury 35 games into the season.
His inactivity has caused his contract to become a blight on the Bulls’ salary cap.
Ball was the No. 2 overall pick to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2017 NBA draft and eventually traded to the Pelicans as part of the Anthony Davis blockbuster deal.
