{"id":601138,"date":"2026-02-13T16:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/601138\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T16:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:25:16","slug":"okc-thunder-pg-nikola-topic-makes-nba-debut-4-months-after-cancer-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/601138\/","title":{"rendered":"OKC Thunder PG Nikola Topic Makes NBA Debut 4 Months After Cancer Diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                          OKC Thunder&#8217;s Nikola Topic<br \/>\n                          Makes NBA Debut<br \/>\n                          4 Mo. After Cancer Diagnosis<\/p>\n<p>\n                                                                        Published<br \/>\n                              February 13, 2026<br \/>\n                            7:47 AM PST<br \/>\n                                                                      |<br \/>\n                                                                Updated<br \/>\n                                  February 13, 2026<br \/>\n                                8:18 AM PST\n                                    <\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260213_25b8fd1f00084647a327f2a3938dccd1\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:6c953c23-4a8c-4aae-a861-51df1414371c\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/25b8fd1f00084647a327f2a3938dccd1_md.jpg\" alt=\"Nikola Topic getty 1\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nikola Topi\u0107 &#8212; the Oklahoma City Thunder first-round draft pick in 2024 &#8212; made his NBA debut four months after he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2025\/10\/30\/oklahoma-city-thunder-nikola-topic-testicular-cancer\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">diagnosed<\/a> with testicular cancer &#8230; receiving a standing ovation from the crowd!<\/p>\n<p>The powerful moment all went down with under two minutes left in the first quarter of Thursday&#8217;s contest. Topi\u0107 was set to inbound the ball when the Paycom Center erupted in cheers for the 20-year-old after his long-awaited return to the court.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A standing ovation for Nikola Topi\u0107 \ud83d\udc4f<\/p>\n<p>The 12th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft is making his NBA debut for the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/okcthunder?ref_src=twsrc^tfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@okcthunder<\/a> tonight!<\/p>\n<p>Tap to watch: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/H43cOyWuWn\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/H43cOyWuWn<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/J72f4kQMiN\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/J72f4kQMiN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/2022117988368101625?ref_src=twsrc^tfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 13, 2026<\/a><br \/>\n              <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">@NBA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Topic tapped his heart in a gesture towards the crowd before inbounding the ball and getting the action back underway. In 12 minutes of action, he scored two points with one assist and one rebound.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s obviously been through a ton of adversity in his life in the last couple years,&#8221; Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a young guy that all he wants to do is play basketball and that&#8217;s been taken from him a couple of different times, and so for him to work himself to this point, get himself on the floor is a great accomplishment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Daigneault is referring to a knee injury that Topi\u0107 suffered before the NBA draft, which knocked him out for the entirety of the 2024-25 NBA season.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260213_038f38f1344d498a9ea6a6c61b2a01df\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:6c953c23-4a8c-4aae-a861-51df1414371c\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/038f38f1344d498a9ea6a6c61b2a01df_md.jpg\" alt=\"Nikola Topic getty 2\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>After a biopsy revealed he had the disease, NT underwent three rounds of chemotherapy, according to his coach. He went on to work his way back into shape, made his return in the G League on Tuesday and joined OKC just before the All-Star break.<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder would go on to lose the game to the Milwaukee Bucks by a final score of 110-93 &#8230; but the biggest win on the night was taken home by Topi\u0107.<\/p>\n<p>      <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKC Thunder&#8217;s Nikola Topic Makes NBA Debut 4 Mo. After Cancer Diagnosis Published February 13, 2026 7:47 AM&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,6,12,67,66,83,2228],"class_list":{"0":"post-601138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-draft","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-sports-news","14":"tag-tmz-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116064258692344759","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601138","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=601138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}