More than a year after Stephen A. Smith was criticized for questioning Lonzo Ball’s NBA future because of a prolonged knee injury, the First Take host was vindicated.
Thursday morning, ESPN published a piece titled ‘Inside Lonzo Ball’s unprecedented 1,000-day return to the NBA’ from Ramona Shelburne and Jamal Collier. Before making his comeback this season, Ball’s last game with the Chicago Bulls was on Jan. 14, 2022. To put how long ago that was into perspective, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden were still the big three in Brooklyn, and the New England Patriots were still a playoff team.
Ball was ruled out from Chicago’s next game with knee soreness, but there wasn’t much cause for concern then. What was supposed to be one game, however, turned into one week and one month before he eventually went on to miss the rest of the 2021-22 season, as well as the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
By Feb. 2023, Ball underwent two knee surgeries and was still searching for answers when it was revealed he was suffering from a cartilage deterioration issue. Ball opted for a rare cartilage transplant surgery that had never been tried on any NBA player; it came with an 18-month recovery time and offered no guarantees of a comeback.
The following August, Smith went on First Take and questioned whether Ball would ever be able to play again, adding, “I’ve heard that it’s even hard for him to get up from a sitting position.” Ball responded by sharing a video of himself getting up from a sitting position and told Smith to “come to the actual source next time.” The ESPN article about Ball’s inspiring comeback referenced Smith’s 2023 report.
“On Aug. 22, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith mentioned on First Take that he’d heard Ball was having trouble getting up from a sitting position, and no one was sure he’d ever play again. The statement would’ve been true a few months earlier. But Ball had made progress by then and was irked enough to respond with a video of himself doing the one-legged squat,” ESPN wrote.
If the statement had been true a few months earlier, then Smith’s report would have been correct. He didn’t put a time stamp on it; he reported that he “heard” Ball’s comeback was in doubt. Where Smith went a bit off the rails was when he mocked Ball’s video response and claimed to have received the information directly from his doctors.
Stephen A Smith talks about Lonzo ball calling him out
“Would you like me to tell you the names of the doctors that operated on you? I know the actual Doctor’s…..if I said it it’s because someone close to you told me.” pic.twitter.com/dL275w71Nt
— Shannonnn sharpes Burner (PARODY Account) (@shannonsharpeee) August 23, 2023
“Would like me to tell where you had surgery and exactly what dates you had surgery on? Would you like me to get the names of the doctors?” Smith asked on his podcast. “I do have them. I know the actual doctors that operated on him.”
It was fair to question Smith’s decision to report something he heard from Ball’s doctors, and it was especially fair to question why Smith threatened to name the doctors. But as far as reporting, he heard Ball was previously struggling to stand up from a sitting position and might never play again, and it seems like Smith was right. Amazingly, Ball defied the odds.
[ESPN]
