Bulls' Lonzo Ball Thrills Fans in Return from Knee Injury; 1st NBA Game Since 2022

Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Welcome back, Lonzo Ball.

The Chicago Bulls guard returned to the court for the first time since January 2022 for Wednesday's preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The score rarely ever matters in the preseason, and it certainly wasn't the focus in the United Center on Wednesday.

All the focus was on Ball, and Julia Poe of the noted the plan was to keep him to a 16-minute restriction.

That he was under a restriction was anything but surprising, as he underwent multiple knee surgeries since suffering the initial injury in January 2022, including a cartilage transplant .

He was expected to miss six-to-eight weeks and return in time for the playoffs when he first suffered the injury, but he didn't make it back to the court that season and went through multiple setbacks before this moment when he was back on the floor.

And he picked up right where he left off by drilling his first two shots beyond the arc, facilitating and even blocking Julius Randle.

His return had fans celebrating him on social media:

Things have not been the same for the Bulls since Ball suffered his injury during that 2021-22 season. After all, they were the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference at the time and appeared to be building toward a potential deep playoff run with a core of Ball, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vučević and Alex Caruso.

Yet they fell to the No. 6 seed without him and lost in the first round before losing in the play-in tournament during the next two seasons while he was sidelined.