{"id":600222,"date":"2026-02-13T04:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/600222\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T04:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T04:44:19","slug":"thunders-nikola-topic-receives-standing-ovation-in-nba-debut-after-cancer-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/600222\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder&#8217;s Nikola Topic receives standing ovation in NBA debut after cancer battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma City Thunder guard Nikola Topi\u0107 made his NBA debut in Thursday&#8217;s 110-93 loss against the Milwaukee Bucks. Topi\u0107 received a standing ovation when he entered the game, after being out since October after receiving <a data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/breaking-news\/article\/thunders-nikola-topic-receiving-chemotherapy-treatment-after-being-diagnosed-with-testicular-cancer-170718823.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:c;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">c<\/a><a data-i13n=\"cpos:2;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/breaking-news\/article\/thunders-nikola-topic-receiving-chemotherapy-treatment-after-being-diagnosed-with-testicular-cancer-170718823.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:hemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with testicular cancer.;cpos:2;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with testicular cancer.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He finished the game with two points, 1 rebound and 1 assist in 12 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>The 20-year-old was assigned to the OKC Blue on Sunday and played in two G League games, averaging 14.5 points and 5.5 assists through two games with the OKC Blue.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-6 Serbian guard has yet to make his NBA debut since being drafted with the 12th overall pick in the 2024 draft. Topi\u0107 missed his rookie season and essentially had a redshirt rookie season after partially <a data-i13n=\"cpos:3;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/projected-nba-lottery-pick-nikola-topic-has-a-torn-acl-192423449.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:tearing his ACL before the draft.;cpos:3;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tearing his ACL before the draft.<\/a> He played in the Summer League and preseason before his diagnosis this year.<\/p>\n<p>Topi\u0107 received minutes with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, all missing the Bucks game.<a data-i13n=\"cpos:4;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/breaking-news\/article\/thunder-star-shai-gilgeous-alexander-out-until-at-least-the-all-star-break-with-abdominal-strain-191628568.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Gilgeous-Alexander;cpos:4;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Gilgeous-Alexander <\/a>and Mitchell have missed time with abdominal injuries, while <a data-i13n=\"cpos:5;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/article\/thunders-jalen-williams-out-a-couple-weeks-with-right-hamstring-strain-211608580.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Williams is dealing with a hamstring injury;cpos:5;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Williams is dealing with a hamstring injury<\/a>. Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein will also rest in the team&#8217;s last game before the All-Star break.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The defending champions sit atop the West standings at 42-14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oklahoma City Thunder guard Nikola Topi\u0107 made his NBA debut in Thursday&#8217;s 110-93 loss against the Milwaukee Bucks.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5577,7,949,364,121,6,12,3110,179,209,23569,58572],"class_list":{"0":"post-600222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-ajay-mitchell","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-isaiah-hartenstein","11":"tag-jalen-williams","12":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-draft","15":"tag-nikola-topic","16":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","17":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","18":"tag-standing-ovation","19":"tag-testicular-cancer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116061501267575036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}