Lonzo Ball said Wednesday that he has not retired from the NBA. He posted on X at 12:05 p.m. ET, less than an hour after comments from his Ball in the Family podcast started getting reported as a retirement announcement.
“I retired? News to me lol cuz I’m still waiting for a call… NBA season long,” Ball wrote.
Earlier in the day, RotoWire reported that Ball announced his retirement from professional basketball during the podcast appearance. NBC Sports‘ Nick Shlain wrote that Ball said on the show he was retiring. BasketNews stopped short of that and reported Ball had not formally announced his retirement.
Ball is 28 and has not played since Feb. 1 against the Portland Trail Blazers. Days later, the Cleveland Cavaliers sent him to the Utah Jazz in a three-team trade at the deadline, and Utah waived him the next day.
What Lonzo Ball Said on the Ball in the Family Podcast
Ball hosts the show with his brother and two friends. It launched last November on the Betr app, according to Billboard. On Wednesday’s episode, Ball said he measures his own career against people who don’t have meals at night, and that it’s how he looks at the world.
“I feel like I gave everything I had to hoop, and I feel like everything I got in my life is because of hoop,” Ball said. “I’m grateful to even make it to the league and be able to play for nine years.”
Where his career stopped still bothers him, Ball said.
“I don’t think I ever got to my peak, and damn, that s— sucks,” Ball said.
Lonzo Ball’s Knee Injuries and Final Season With the Cavaliers
The injury came in January 2022, during Ball’s first season with the Chicago Bulls. He hurt his left knee, and the first surgeries didn’t fix it. In March 2023 he had a meniscus and cartilage transplant. Ball sat out all of 2022-23 and all of 2023-24.
He came back for 35 games with Chicago in 2024-25 and scored 7.6 points a game. He made 34.4% of his 3-point attempts that season. That summer the Bulls traded him to Cleveland for Isaac Okoro.
With the Cavaliers, his scoring dropped to 4.6 points in 20.8 minutes a night, along with 4.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists. Ball went 53-of-176 from the field and 40-of-147 from 3-point range over 35 games.
Lonzo Ball’s Career From the Lakers to Cleveland
In 2017 the Los Angeles Lakers took Ball second overall out of UCLA, where he had been a consensus first-team All-American. He made the All-Rookie Second Team after averaging 7.2 assists in 52 games.
Two seasons in Los Angeles were followed by two with the New Orleans Pelicans. His best scoring year came in 2020-21 with New Orleans, at 14.6 points a game. The next season, in Chicago, he shot 110-of-260 from 3-point range before the knee gave out.
Ball finished 322 regular-season games with career averages of 10.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 5.6 assists.
