Even after the final buzzer sound on Thursday’s 110-93 blowout loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Oklahoma City Thunder had to take a second to smile. For good reason.
The No. 12 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, Nikola Topic, made his long awaited NBA debut. In this game, the 20-year-old logged 13 minutes to the tune of two points, a rebound, and an assist. He enjoyed a standing ovation and plenty of post-game praise.
Oklahoma City almost stumbled into the selection of Topic. No one thought he would be available with this late NBA Draft Lottery selection, but a torn ACL suffered just before draft night allowed him to land with the Thunder. The Brickown Ballers knew he would need a redshirt season to make his comeback to the court. A situation the Thunder were more than comfortable with, given their past experiences with that scenario and the talent level of Topic, believed to be a top-five prospect from that 2024 NBA Draft class.
After returning to the hardwood in July during NBA Summer League and having an impressive debut in the Thunder’s NBA Preseason opener, Topic received unexpected and unimaginable news. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer and needed to undergo chemotherapy treatments.
Topic cleared those treatments at the turn of the new year and worked to get back to the game he loves. A process that the team rallied around him during and drew inspiration from. Many praise not only his hard work, even while dealing with cancer treatments, but also his attitude, everyone mentioning how, if you didn’t know what he was going through, you would never know by how he carries himself.
“He’s done an incredible job in the face of a lot of different obstacles and adversities. For a young person, he’s shown tremendous resilience, optimism, professionalism, consistency, steadiness. He’s an impressive young guy. He was before that. But he did an ACL and another more significant setback. I’m incredibly happy for him to be able to dress tonight. I would say in the Blue games, he played short minutes. It’s his first live-action in a long, long time. The purpose of getting him dressed tonight is just to get him used to game day in uniform for the first time, and so we’ll see how it goes. But it’s a huge accomplishment for him to get to this point,” OKC Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “Just thrilled for him. He’s obviously been through a ton of adversity in his life the last couple of years. He’s a young guy who all he wants to do is play basketball, and that’s been taken from him a couple of different times. For him to work himself to this point and get himself on the floor is a great accomplishment. I love watching the team respond to him both during and after the game. I can’t help but think of his family as well. I have young kids at home. It’s pretty hard to even think about what his family’s gone through as well. It hasn’t just been him. He’s got a wonderful family that loves him very much. That was through this with him the entire time. So I’m thrilled for them, and certainly a really good feel-good night for his family, for him and for our team.”
The Oklahoma City Thunder bench boss says it best: everyone should be thrilled for him and his family to have this long-awaited moment after all the battles he has had to overcome to get back onto the floor. This was in the midst of a pretty grueling stretch for someone returning to play. Topic played on both ends of a Monday-Tuesday back-to-back set for the OKC Blue on Monday and Tuesday, before making his NBA debut for the OKC Thunder on Thursday in his third game in four nights.
“What’s important to remember is he played two very short stretches of Blue minutes earlier this week. This was just like a unique pocket to get him in with our team with very little expectations. From a performance standpoint, he’s in the infant stages of returning to full game shape. What chemotherapy does to your body is really remarkable. It’s crazy what it does to you physically. So the road back from that is different for everybody. It’s highly challenging. If his peak athleticism is a 10 out of 10, he’s not even close to that right now in terms of conditioning, athleticism, strength, all the things that that does to your body. So it would be unfair to evaluate him in this context. We’re just happy he got out there tonight and is on that track back. That’s the most important thing,” Daigneault enlightened.
His return to play was just his first step in this return to play protocol, but it was a significant one and worth celebrating. Following Thursday’s game, the Thunder head coach revealed more about Topic’s journey.
“Obviously finished chemotherapy, and then the process. That’s not an endpoint by any stretch, physically. Getting himself to a place where using strength training, all of our testing with him that they do, making sure that he’s in a good spot to continue his progression on the court. I’m not privy to every little detail. Then, working himself back in on our workouts, getting his breathing going, and then building that up to one-on-one, three-on-three, eventually five-on-five, like this week. We’re in the early stages of that return to performance. He’s now playing again, but it’s going to take a while for him to be his full self again. Just based on what he’s been through. But he obviously can get some stuff done,” Daigneault detailed.
The anticipation still builds for what the young point guard can add to this championship club, and the first thing that stands out is his elite playmaking ability.
“You saw stuff coming out of the draft. Obviously, lead guard, elite passer, great IQ, mature beyond his years as a basketball player, but a long road ahead,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said.
Topic’s OKC Thunder teammate went as far as to tab his play style as unique, even for the deepest and most talented roster in the NBA.
“He’s a unique player. Feels like on the team, he’s probably the most past-first guy. He’s out there really trying to put guys in advantageous situations, and then look to score second. We kinda got to learn that when he’s out on the floor, and learn to play with him a little bit. As we get better with him, then he continues to get better. I think he’s going to be really good,” Thunder All-Star Chet Holmgren explained.
Oklahoma City will continue to work with Topic and integrate him into this team. It is unclear what his role looks like following the NBA All-Star break, but the future for Topic long-term is interesting, no matter what the short-term outlook appears to be. It is just good to see him back on the floor.
Stay tuned to Thunder on SI for complete coverage of the Oklahoma City Thunder season and the next steps for Topic.