NBA Rumors- Lonzo Ball's NBA career might be done after just six seasons

Lonzo Ball has been dealing with a persistent knee injury for the past 18 months. Having not played since Jan. 14, 2022, the Chicago Bulls have become used to operating without their star playmaker on the court.

However, according to Dan Bernstein of the Organizations Win Championships podcast, the Chicago Bulls may have to adapt to life without Lonzo Ball permanently. A sentiment that the insider revealed was shared among some within the Chicago Bulls front office.

"The other thing I heard is even though publicly there has been an expression of guarded optimism regarding a future for Lonzo Ball," Bernstein said. "And there's a reason why for your pursuant to all kinds of union issues, why they haven't asked for the salary exemption yet because they don't want to send the message publicly that they're done with him.

"They don't think it's likely that he ever plays again."

Lonzo Ball was drafted with the second pick in the 2017 NBA draft by the LA Lakers, the same draft that saw Jayson Tatum get taken third. Since entering the NBA, Lonzo Ball has participated in 252 regular-season games, averaging 11.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 6.2 assists. Furthermore, the skilled passer has shot the ball at a 40.0% clip from the field and a 36.4% clip from 3-point range.

Now, NBA fans will be hoping that Lonzo Ball can prove the doubters wrong so that he can return to full fitness and continue to develop into the star point guard his skillset predicted him to be.

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Scottie Pippen rips Michael Jordan

During a recent appearance on the 'Gimme The Hot Sauce' podcast, Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen took aim at Michael Jordan, noting how the superstar guard wasn't always a good player.

"I'll leave that up for debate, because I don't believe there's a great player because our game's a team game, and one player can't do it," Pippen said. "I saw Jordan play before I came to play with the Bulls. You guys saw him play. He was a horrible player.

"He was horrible to play with. He was all one-on-one, he's shooting bad shots, and all of a sudden we become a team and we start winning and everybody forgot who he was."

Regardless of what Scottie Pippen believes, many still view Michael Jordan as the greatest player of all time. As such, some will construe Scottie Pippen's comments as nothing but bitterness toward an old teammate who is still a significant part of popular culture around the world.

In truth, Scottie Pippen probably does have a point because Michael Jordan's game did become more team-centric once the duo was on the same team. However, even in the modern NBA, we see star players rely on isolation basketball when they don't trust the teammates they have around them.

With that in mind, perhaps Michael Jordan simply didn't trust his teammates before Chicago's dynasty was formed, and once he had the talent around him, he allowed himself to be more of a team player. But in truth, we will likely never know the answer to that.