NBA veteran and former Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball appeared to announce his retirement from basketball on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
It now appears his retirement isn\u2019t so certain.<\/p>\n
Ball, who the Lakers selected with the No. 2 pick<\/a> of the 2017 NBA Draft, seemed to allude to his career coming to an end during an episode <\/a>of his \u201cBall in the Family Podcast\u201d that aired on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball reacts after missing a pass from guard Isaiah Thomas during the first half of the team\u2019s NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets on Friday, March 9, 2018, in Denver. AP<\/p>\n In the podcast, Ball spoke about the constant injuries he has dealt with, then reflected on how these injuries have derailed his career.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I don\u2019t think I ever got to my peak. And damn, that sh** sucks, but at the same time there\u2019s people that don\u2019t have meals at night to eat. That\u2019s how I look at the world,\u201d Ball said. <\/p>\n Social media clipped this quote from Ball and took it to mean he had retired. <\/p>\n Several accounts ran with that on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n But Ball refuted that notion with an X post<\/a>, writing, \u201cI retired? News to me lol cuz I\u2019m still waiting for a call\u2026 NBA season long \ud83e\udd37\ud83c\udffb\u200d\u2642\ufe0f\u201d.<\/p>\n Lonzo Ball speaking during an episode of his \u201cBall in the Family\u201d podcast (YouTube).<\/p>\n Ball is currently an unrestricted free agent, and mentioned in the podcast that he was supposed to go play overseas in Dubai last week but decided against doing so. <\/p>\n Still, the 28-year-old\u2019s comments convey that he isn\u2019t retiring, as was initially reported. <\/p>\n Ball spent the first two seasons of his NBA career in Los Angeles before being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans as part of the blockbuster trade that brought Anthony Davis to the Lakers. He then spent two seasons in New Orleans before signing with the Chicago Bulls in free agency.<\/p>\n Despite signing a four-year deal, Ball played only one season then missed the next two because of injuries<\/a>. His final season in Chicago was in 2024-25, then played last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n Ball\u2019s younger brother, LaMelo, is a star guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves. <\/p>\n Chicago Bulls\u2019 Lonzo Ball (2) watches his shot during the first quarter of a game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n Lonzo, has averaged 10.6 points and 5.6 assists per game while shooting 39.2% from the field in his career. These stats leave a lot to be desired, but Ball isn\u2019t one of the NBA\u2019s most polarizing figures for his hoops. <\/p>\n His father, LaVar, is a bombastic personality<\/a> with a unique knack for making headlines, usually involving something outrageous he said or did<\/a>. <\/p>\n Lonzo\u2019s basketball career is also polarizing. For one, the Lakers\u2019 decision to take him with that No. 2 overall pick didn\u2019t age well, given that the Boston Celtics selected Jayson Tatum \u2014 who went on to become one of the league\u2019s best players \u2014\u00a0one pick later. <\/p>\n Lonzo can\u2019t be faulted for Los Angeles\u2019 draft decision. But that fact doesn\u2019t change how many Lakers fans feel about him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA veteran and former Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball appeared to announce his retirement from basketball on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,4442,150,6,12,66],"class_list":["post-842128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-basketball","tag-lonzo-ball","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117321876358496903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842128","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=842128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}