Lonzo Ball’s name is back in the conversation, but not because a team is lining up to sign him. After retirement rumors started to circulate, Ball pushed back on the idea with a simple message: he is still “waiting for a call.”
“I retired? News to me lol cuz I’m still waiting for a call… NBA season long 🤷🏻♂️”
That came after he went unsigned following the trade that sent him from the Cavs to the Jazz at last year’s deadline, and there has been no reported interest from any team heading into the 2026-27 campaign. It also stands in contrast to a podcast appearance in which he said he was "done with basketball." However it gets interpreted, Ball made it clear he wants to leave the game on his own terms.
Lonzo Ball indicates he's done with basketball:"I feel like I gave everything I had to hoop, and I feel like everything I got in my life is because of hoop. I’m grateful to even make it to the league and be able to play for 9 years."pic.twitter.com/z561ttSNSJ
The Cleveland stop is really where things started to unravel in a major way. Ball landed there in a deal that sent Isaac Okoro, the team’s 2020 lottery pick, the other direction.
On paper, it looked like the kind of move that could work out if Ball was finally healthy enough to help. In reality, it was rough almost from the start.
Across 35 games and nearly 21 minutes per night, he averaged just 4.6 points. His shooting numbers were brutal: 30% from the field and 27% from 3PT. The offense never found a rhythm with him, his instincts didn’t look like the old Lonzo Ball, and his plus/minus was ugly enough to make him look like a liability more often than not.
Cleveland eventually pulled him from the rotation before moving him at the deadline, attaching multiple draft picks just to get the deal done. After that, he didn’t exactly own the performance either.
To be fair, Ball did have value as a passer and a tempo-setter. Early on, he at least brought decent facilitation and some activity in the passing lanes.
But the larger picture was impossible to ignore: the knee injury that sidelined him for so long seemed to take the burst and confidence that once made him such a promising player. Getting back on the floor at all was a remarkable feat.
The results with him on the court were hard to miss. Cleveland went 19-16 with Ball in the lineup and 33-14 without him, a split that said plenty about how the team functioned around him. His minutes were also eating into Craig Porter Jr.’s role, and by the time the deadline passed, no team wanted to take a swing on a player who could slow down the offense and offer little scoring threat.
Ball has had real moments in the league, and he is not officially retired. But with his Cleveland tenure ending the way it did, the road back looks awfully steep. His brother LaMelo Ball is beginning a new chapter in Minnesota after leading a surging Hornets team to a play-in run in 2025-26, and the idea of the brothers teaming up in the NBA now feels all but gone.
For now, Lonzo Ball says he’s still waiting. Whether that call ever comes is another matter.
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