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Come Fan with UsFriday, June 26, 2026

Lonzo Ball roasted Stephen A. Smith for bizarre claims about his injury

Lonzo Ball can stand up after sitting down. Take that, Stephen A. Smith!

Ricky O'Donnell
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.

Lonzo Ball’s ongoing left knee injury is the saddest story in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls guard exited a game against the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 14, 2022, and he hasn’t played a minute of basketball since.

Ball missed the second half of the 2021-2022 season as he recovered from what was initially diagnosed as a torn meniscus. When doctors realized Ball actually had a bone bruise on his knee, he needed another surgery and missed all of the 2022-2023 season. Now Ball has already been ruled out for the 2023-2024 season after needing a third surgery on the same knee in March. Ball confirmed that he’s out for the upcoming season recently on Trae Young’s podcast.

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith reportedly claimed Ball’s recovery was going so poorly that he had trouble standing up after sitting. Smith’s statement got back to Ball, who immediately went on Twitter (yes, I’m still calling it that) and posted a video of him sitting down and standing up several times to refute the talking head’s claim.

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“Stephen A., who are your sources, bro?,” Ball says in the video. “I actually like you, man. I don’t even know you like that. But I like you. I’m coming back, man. Come on!”

We may be in the dying days of Twitter, but it still provides some of the greatest entertainment you can find on the internet.

Lonzo Ball can stand up after sitting down, know that. Just don’t ask him to walk up a flight of stairs, because last time he spoke to Bulls media, that still hurt.

Update: Stephen A. Smith has responded.

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