Brother Qiu, he is finally coming back.
Recently, Lonzo Ball was a guest on a podcast, in which he revealed his comeback time: "I rested for the first two preseason games, and I expected to play the last two, or two of the last three, or one of them, and recently I feel great, my knees feel great. ”
After checking, the Bulls have played two preseason games so far, and there are three preseason games against the Bucks on the 15th, the Timberwolves on the 17th, and the Cavaliers on the 19th, which means that the ball brother can return as early as the 15th.
Pinch your fingers, 1000+ days have passed since Brother Qiu's last game.
You read that right, the last time Brother Ball appeared in the NBA was January 15, 2022, even if Brother Ball played in time for the game against the Bucks, then the last time he played was 1003 days.
What is the concept? Brother Qiu was only 24 years old when he last appeared, but now he is 26 years old, and he will be 27 years old in half a month.
Don't look at Brother Qiu, who is only 26 years old, but his knee may have to be 62 years old...
It's really not an exaggeration, Brother Qiu's knee is too abrasive.
Back on January 15, 2022, after playing the Warriors, Brother Qiu was diagnosed with a slight tear of the meniscus in his knee, and then underwent surgery, and the initial news at that time was that Brother Qiu only needed about 8 weeks to come back, which is also the normal recovery time for knee arthroscopy.
As a result, after the expected comeback time, Brother Qiu's knee still did not improve, and his comeback time could only be pushed again and again, and finally before the end of the regular season, the Bulls reluctantly announced that Brother Qiu's season would be reimbursed.
And that's just the beginning.
In the 2022 offseason, he rested for a whole summer, but his knee still didn't improve, and finally in September 2022, he underwent a second operation, for which he missed training camp and preseason games.
It needs to be said that Brother Qiu's second surgery is actually only a repair operation, and the expected absence time is only 2 months, and it is optimistic that it will be the result, and after 2 months, Brother Qiu is still the same.
Things after that are a little "weird".
In the 2022-23 season, Brother Qiu spent the whole season recuperating from injuries and seeing doctors, and a piece of news at the time was like this: The Bulls team doctor didn't know, and Brother Ball and his team didn't know why his knee still hurt after two surgeries.
Finally, on March 17, 2023, Brother Qiu underwent his third knee surgery, which was different from the previous two, this time it was a cartilage transplant, which was reimbursed not only for the 22-23 season, but also for the 23-24 season.
Note that no player in the history of the NBA has ever been able to move away from knee cartilage grafting.
Therefore, after Brother Qiu underwent the third operation, the outside world was no longer optimistic that Brother Qiu could return to his original level, and some people even thought that Brother Qiu's career had ended early.
Chandler Parsons, who also had knee cartilage surgery, commented: "I'm sad because I've been through the same thing as him, he's only 25 years old, he's about to become a star, he's training hard, it's just bad luck.
Cartilage transplantation, I've never seen anyone do this surgery and still be the same as before, I have had similar surgery in Germany, the recovery time is very long, you even have to learn to walk again, you have to train in the pool, you can't gain weight, you're basically a child. ”
As Parsons said, the ball brother before the injury was on the road to becoming a star, when he was in his first year with the Bulls, he averaged 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game, shooting 42.3%/42.3%/75.0% from three, and 57.5% true shooting.
Brother Ball is the star of the class of 2017, if you remember, in the first two years of the Lakers, his performance was not very good, especially the shooting, which was not as amazing as in college.
But after the transfer to the Pelicans, the ball brother slowly practiced three-point shooting, and it can be said that it took him a few years to find the most suitable position for himself - defensive playmaking 3D point guard.
Among them, defense, organization, and ball brother can be called the top, and the three-point shot is getting better and better after years of training, but it's a pity that he suffered such an injury during the rising period.
Because of the fame at a young age, there is a lot of hype in the middle, so I still pay a lot of attention to Brother Qiu, the upcoming new season, I don't expect him to return to the original level, I just hope that after the end of this contract, he can still stay in the NBA, to prove himself, start with the first preseason game.