Nikola Subject made his NBA debut for the Oklahoma City Thunder four months after being diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Topic, 20, returned to the field on Thursday, February 12, for the Thunder’s match against the Milwaukee Bucks. The game ended in a 110-93 loss for the Thunder.
Topic received a standing ovation from the home crowd when he entered the match.
The game marked Topic’s first official regular-season NBA event for the Thunder, who drafted him in the first round of the 2024 draft. (The Serbia native missed the 2024-25 season with an ACL injury.)
Vancouver Canucks star Dakota Joshua has revealed that he has been diagnosed with testicular cancer. “This summer, I felt a lump on one of my testicles that doctors would later diagnose as testicular cancer,” Joshua wrote in a statement released by the Canucks on Tuesday (September 17). “This news was obviously frightening to hear, but fortunately the doctors were (…)
Topic received his cancer diagnosis shortly after playing in the Thunder’s first preseason game of the 2025-26 season. He underwent a round of chemotherapy and returned to training in January.
“(The subject) did not want to make this information public until he began treatment, which he did,” the Thunder general manager said. Sam Presti » said in October 2025 as Topic began chemotherapy. “He’s been here, he’s training, he’s training through this process. As we all know, it would be a difficult treatment process to go through.”
The Thunder announced in early October 2025 that Topic would miss four to six weeks to start this season after a “testicular procedure,” but did not provide further details.
Presti, 47, revealed in his statement that the procedure was necessary to determine whether he had testicular cancer, while a biopsy confirmed his diagnosis. He also said doctors were “extremely positive” about his prognosis.
“Our only expectations of him are to focus on that,” Presti continued. “That’s his biggest priority. He’ll come back and play basketball when he’s able to, but obviously we’re not putting any delays or expectations on that. He has all of our support and encouragement and love. He has a wonderful group of oncologists at OU and MD Anderson, and they are extremely positive about his outlook.”
Presti concluded: “(Topic) is a truly remarkable, remarkable guy. I think everyone knows that, it’s been around him. Extraordinarily mature, poised, resilient. He has all the tools you could ask of someone to take on and conquer the situation.”
Former NBA player Jason Collins has been diagnosed with stage IV brain cancer. “A few months ago, my family released a short statement saying I had a brain tumor. It was simple, but intentionally vague,” Collins, 47, wrote in an essay for ESPN published Thursday (Dec. 11). “They did this to protect my privacy (…)
The subject has previously spoken candidly about how it felt to miss last season amid his ACL injury.
“It was tough, you know? I haven’t played a basketball game for a really long time, and it was really tough,” he said in a video shared by the Thunder via YouTube in July 2025. “But, as you go through this process, you learn something about yourself that you didn’t know. You didn’t know how strong you were and how strong human bodies are. I will say that I took away the positives from it and that I learned lessons from it.”
The subject continued: “I feel good now. It was a little difficult at first, especially in back-to-back games. It was pretty weird having to play back-to-back games. I don’t know, it was weird. I didn’t know what to do: sleep, take a nap. It was really weird, but I’m getting used to it.”
