Nikola Topic, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 2024 No. 12 pick, is undergoing chemotherapy to treat testicular cancer, team president Sam Presti announced Thursday.
Topic, 20, had been out since the start of training camp, recovering from testicular surgery.
“The procedure was necessary to do a biopsy and the biopsy results were returned and he is facing a case of testicular cancer,” Presti told the media. “Now he has a wonderful group of oncologists at both University of Oklahoma Hospital and MD Anderson, and they are extremely positive about his outlook on this situation. It’s important to note that testicular cancer is the most cured form of cancer in men, but the treatment option for him at this time, recommended by the oncologist, is chemotherapy.
“Tope didn’t want to make this information public until he started treatments, which he did recently. He’s been here, he’s training, he’s training. Throughout this process, he’s been able to do it, but as we all know, it would be a difficult treatment process to go through. But the team of doctors that he has around him, as I said before, are extremely positive about his long-term prospects.
“As far as our expectations of him or anything like that, our only expectations of him are to focus on that. That’s his biggest priority. He’ll come back and play basketball, you know, when he’s able to, but we obviously don’t put any expectations on that. He has all of our support and encouragement and love.”
Topic impressed during the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas last July and played 31 minutes in Oklahoma City’s preseason opener, before undergoing the testicular procedure that took him out and led to the cancer diagnosis. On the bright side, not only is his prognosis relatively favorable, but there is also precedent for a player to come back from this diagnosis and have a long career — Brazilian big man Nene experienced this early in his career and continued to play 11 seasons afterward, noted Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes.
Prayers for Thunder guard Nikola Topic following his diagnosis of testicular cancer. Nene, a former NBA great, also battled testicular cancer and underwent chemotherapy during his NBA career, missing 76 days during the 2007-08 season. Nene played 11 more seasons after returning.
– Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) October 30, 2025
Topic missed the Thunder’s entire 2024-25 championship season due to a torn ACL, and he has yet to step foot on the court for an actual NBA game. That said, the 6’6″ guard from Serbia is still part of OKC’s long-term plans.
