The Oklahoma City Thunder have seen No. 12 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, Nikola Topic, face many difficulties to begin his NBA journey. After tearing up his ACL draft and spending the entire 2024-25 campaign working his way back, he dominated the Summer League and preseason. However, after his first preseason game, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Topic is undergoing chemotherapy treatments and battling the unimaginable at such a young age. From the start, the Oklahoma City Thunder described how they supported him and the confidence they had in Topic’s uniquely strong mentality and personality to navigate these waters.
At NBA Cup media day, head coach Mark Daigneault and All-NBA swingman Jalen Williams were asked to provide an update on the topic.
“Well, the plan right now is that he manages his treatment and where he’s at, which is obviously a serious issue but one that he manages as well as anyone – anyone, let alone an 18 or 19 year old, can manage. He showed a tremendous amount of maturity last season, seeing him go through an ACL recovery. It’s a long time,” Daigneault detailed. “There’s a lot of invisible work. There’s a lot of days that are a little bit in the shadows, and you learn a lot about guys when they go through that. He showed incredible abilities there. Now, it’s obviously a more serious situation with his health, and he’s just shown the same maturity.”
Hearing the way Daigneault and Williams describe Topic, the person, is all you need to know. Handling these issues with such grace, respect and pride for and in Topic shows the impression the young guard has already made on this organization.
“He’s an incredible person. He shows incredible character. He’s very modest. He doesn’t want it to revolve around him. He’s additive when he’s with the team. He does the work where he can physically so that when he comes out, he’s in the best possible position physically,” explained Daigneault. “But he’s done a great job. He’s exactly where he should be. He’s doing great. The guys have been great to him. He’s been great to the guys. It’s a very humbling situation to watch because he’s handled it wonderfully.”
Williams used the term respect directly when discussing what he saw from the former lottery pick this season.
“Yeah, I have a lot of respect for Top. Really good dude, and he’s young. I actually went off topic, and that’s the reason why, where I’m like, oh, this sucks, because he doesn’t come in like, ah, this sucks. He’s always up. He comes in and practices and shoots and tries to get better, which is crazy to me,” Jalen Williams said. “The least we can do as a team is give him something that’s really comfortable when he comes in, practices. So he’s been really strong in dealing with this situation. He doesn’t feel sorry for himself.”
The Santa Clara product echoes Daigneault’s sentiment about the invisible work he continues to do.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s still crazy. I think everyone knows he goes there to practice and he’s still going through his treatment and he tore his ACL the year before and he hasn’t even been able to reap the benefits of being able to play an NBA game yet, that just speaks to his character and his willingness to overcome adversity,” Williams explained. “Really proud for him, man. I hope to get him out real soon. But yeah, he’s a guy, for sure. Lots of respect for Top.”
