Lonzo Ball worked his butt off to return to an NBA court after more than two full seasons of being away from the sport. No one will ever be able to take that type of resilience away from him. It is that same quality that is being shown in addressing the recent rumors that have come his way.
The way Zo was speaking about the game of basketball on the Ball in the Family podcast led several outlets to speculate on the retirement of the former Los Angeles Lakers guard. Some went as far as to make the announcement for him, saying that Ball had retired from the NBA. He disagreed.
Ball posted on Twitter/X to address the ongoing speculation of him calling it a career. The former Laker said all the retirement talk was news to him. Lonzo openly expressed he is waiting for teams to pick up the phone and dial his number amid the coming NBA season.
I retired? News to me lol cuz I’m still waiting for a call… NBA season long 🤷🏻♂️
— Lonzo Ball (@ZO2_) September 23, 2026
For Ball, this is a brutally telling sign of where his career has fallen to. 2025-26 was a rough campaign for Lonzo. The former second overall pick did not even finish the season on an NBA roster, getting waived by the Utah Jazz upon his arrival via trade.
Ball is not retired. However, it is unfortunately understandable why many were ready to make that premature call on his NBA career.
Lonzo Ball did not retire, but he might not be far from it
Let us start with the positives from this past season. Ball was still a solid defender for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2025-26.
On the other end of the equation was his disastrous scoring touch. Ball averaged 4.6 points in 20.8 minutes per game off the Cavaliers bench, shooting 30.1 percent from the field and 27.2 percent from beyond the arc.
In his defense, scoring was never his strong suit. Even with that in mind, these were unacceptably bad levels of efficiency from Ball. It is not like Lonzo was a victim of a struggling team either. The Cavaliers posted the sixth best offensive rating (118.3) in the NBA last season.
Being such a non-factor as a scorer even hurt his playmaking ability. The numbers were still fine enough, but it was clear there would be limitations on Ball's upside as a distributor due to defenses not respecting his ability to beat them with his buckets.
All of that has led us to where we are today. Ball is a free agent, and onlookers are reading between the lines to assume his retirement. Lonzo may not ready to give up just yet, but it is more than fair to ask whether NBA teams are going to give him an opportunity to follow through on that resilience.
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