Even after the final buzzer of Thursday’s 110-93 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Oklahoma City Thunder had to take a second to smile. For good reason.
The No. 12 pick in the 2024 NBA draft, Nikola Topic, made his long-awaited NBA debut. In this match, the 20-year-old spent 13 minutes to the tune of two points, one rebound and one assist. He received a standing ovation and widespread praise after the match.
Oklahoma City almost fell on the selection of Topic. No one thought he would be available with that late NBA Draft Lottery selection, but a torn ACL suffered just before draft night allowed him to land with the Thunder. The Brickown Ballers knew he would need a redshirt season to make his return to the field. A situation the Thunder were more than comfortable in, given their past experiences with this scenario and the talent level of Topic, considered one of the top five prospects in this 2024 NBA Draft class.
After returning to the hard courts in July during the NBA Summer League and making an impressive debut in the Thunder’s NBA preseason opener, Topic received some unexpected and unimaginable news. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy treatments.
Topic ended those treatments at the turn of the new year and worked to return to the game he loves. A process during which the team rallied around him and from which it drew inspiration. Many praise not only his hard work, even while dealing with cancer treatments, but also his attitude, with everyone mentioning that if you didn’t know what he was going through, you would never know by how he carries himself.
“He’s done an incredible job in the face of a lot of obstacles and adversity. For a young guy, he’s shown tremendous resilience, optimism, professionalism, consistency and stability. He’s an impressive young man. He was before that. But he suffered an ACL and another bigger setback. I’m incredibly happy he was able to dress tonight. I would say in the Blues games he played short “It’s his first live action in a long, long time. The goal of dressing him up tonight is just to get him used to game day in uniform for the first time, and so we’ll see how it goes. But it’s a huge accomplishment for him to get to this point,” OKC Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “I’m just excited for him. He’s obviously been through a lot of adversity in his life over the last couple of years. He’s a young man that all he wants to do is play basketball, and that’s been taken away from him multiple times. For him to work to this point and get on the court is a big accomplishment. I love seeing the team respond to him during and after the game. I can’t help but think about his family, too. I have young kids at home. It’s pretty. It’s also hard to think about what his family has been through. It’s not just him. He has a wonderful family who loves him very much, so I’m thrilled for them, and it’s definitely a really good feel-good night for his family, for him and for our team.
The Oklahoma City Thunder bench boss says it best: Everyone should be excited that he and his family are experiencing this long-awaited moment after all the battles he had to overcome to get back on the court. It was in the middle of a pretty grueling stretch for someone returning to play. Topic played both ends of a back-to-back Monday-Tuesday set for the OKC Blue on Monday and Tuesday, before making his NBA debut for the OKC Thunder on Thursday in his third game in four nights.
“The important thing to remember is that he played two very short stretches of minutes with the Blues earlier this week. It was like a unique pocket to get him into our team with very little expectations. From a performance standpoint, he’s in the early stages of returning to full playing form. What chemotherapy does to your body is truly remarkable. It’s crazy what it does to you physically. So the road back is different for everyone. It’s very difficult. If his peak athleticism is 10 out of 10. 10, he’s not even close to it right now in terms of fitness, athleticism, strength, everything that does to your body, so it would be unfair to evaluate him in that context.
His return to play was only his first step in this return to play protocol, but it was important and worth celebrating. After Thursday’s game, the Thunder head coach revealed more about Topic’s journey.
“Obviously, I finished the chemotherapy and then the process. It’s not an end point by any means, physically. Getting to a place where he’s using the strength training, all of our testing with him, what they’re doing, to make sure he’s in a good place to continue his progression on the field. I’m not privy to every little detail. Then I got back into our workouts, started breathing, and then increased that one-on-one, three against three, finally. “It’s a five against five match, like this week. We are in the early stages of this return to performance. He’s playing again, but it will take him some time to fully become himself again, but he can obviously accomplish certain things,” Daigneault explained.
Anticipation continues to build for what the young point guard can add to this championship club, and the first thing that stands out is his ability as an elite playmaker.
“You saw some things come out of the draft. Obviously a playmaker, an elite passer, great IQ, maturity beyond his years as a basketball player, but a long way to go,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said.
Topic’s OKC Thunder teammate went so far as to call his style of play unique, even for the most complete and talented team in the NBA.
“He’s a unique player. It seems like on the team he’s probably the most passed-first player. He really tries to put guys in advantageous situations and then looks to score second. We have to kind of learn that when he’s on the floor, and learn how to play with him a little bit. As we get better with him, he continues to get better. I think he’s going to be really good,” Thunder star Chet Holmgren said.
Oklahoma City will continue to work with Topic and integrate him into this team. It’s unclear what his role looks like after the NBA All-Star break, but Topic’s long-term future is interesting regardless of the short-term outlook. It’s just good to see him back on the field.
Stay tuned Thunder on SI for complete coverage of the Oklahoma City Thunder season and what’s next for Topic.
