OKC Thunder Asked About Rehab Process of Nikola Topic

The Oklahoma City Thunder have seen the No. 12 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, Nikola Topic, deal with a lot to start his NBA journey. After tearing his ACL pre-draft and spending the entire 2024-25 campaign working his way back, he dominated in Summer League and the preseason. Though, after his first preseason game, he was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer.

Topic is undergoing Chemotherapy treatments and battling through the unimaginable at such a young age. From the word go, the Oklahoma City Thunder have described how they have his back and the belief they have in Topic's uniquely strong mentality and personality to navigate through these waters.

At NBA Cup Media Day, head coach Mark Daigneault and All-NBA swingman Jalen Williams were asked for an update on Topic.

"Well, the plan right now is for him to handle his treatment and to handle where he is at, which is obviously a serious matter but one that he is handling as well as anybody -- any person, never mind an 18- or 19-year-old person, can handle. He showed tremendous maturity last season, watching him go through an ACL recovery. That's a long time," Daigneault detailed. "There's a lot of invisible work. There's a lot of days that are kind of in the shadows, and you learn a lot about guys when they go through that. He showed unbelievable capacity there. Now this is obviously a more serious situation with his health, and he has only shown the same maturity."

Hearing the way Daigneault and Williams describe Topic, the person, is all you need to know. To handle these questions with such grace, respect and pride for and in Topic shows the impression the young guard has made on this organization already.

"He is an incredible person. Shows unbelievable character. He is very unassuming. He doesn't want this to be about him. He is additive when he is around the team. He is putting the work in where he can physically so that when he comes out of it, he is in the best possible position physically," Daigneault explained. "But he has done a great job. He is right where he should be. He is doing great. The guys have been great with him. He has been great with the guys. It's been a very humbling situation to watch because he has handled it just beautifully."

Williams used the term respect out right when discussing what he has seen out of the former lottery pick this season.

"Yeah, I've got a lot of respect for Top. Really good dude, and he's young. I've actually gotten out of the point, and he has been the reason why, where I'm like, oh, that sucks, because he doesn't come in like, ah, it sucks. He's still up. He is going in and working out and shooting and trying to get better, which is insane 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, comes in to work out. So he has been really, really strong about this situation. He doesn't feel sorry for himself."

The Santa Clara product echoed the sentiment from Daigneault about the invisible work he continues to put in.

"Yeah, I mean, it's still crazy. I think everybody knows for him to be going in there working out and still going through his treatment and having torn his ACL the year before and not even get to reap the benefits yet of being able to play an NBA game just speaks to his character and how much he is willing to push through adversity," Williams explained. "Real proud for him, man. Hope to get him out real soon. But yeah, he's a dawg, for sure. A lot of respect for Top."