CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Billy Donovan has known since last week that he was selected to join the 2025 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class, but there the Bulls coach sat Sunday morning still trying to wrap his arms around the magnitude of the honor.
Realistically, don’t expect it to happen anytime soon.
“I still need time to probably process it all, because you’re sitting there (at the Saturday announcement ceremony) and then walk up there and Dr. J (Julius Erving) is there, and Mike Krzyzewski is there, and you’re sitting there with Carmelo (Anthony) and Dwight Howard, and seeing all these different people, and it’s like, ‘Wow, I’m in this group of people. What’s happening?’ “ Donovan said. “It’s like really hard to comprehend.”
Not that Donovan has given himself time to actually do that.
He found out while the team was going through the morning shootaround in Oklahoma City, had a back-to-back after that, a few days off to prep for Portland and then back on a plane for Charlotte on Saturday.
All the while trying to coach this team to just a second playoff appearance since he’s been the Bulls coach.
“To me it’s still kind of hitting me in a way that’s hard to comprehend and really haven’t been able to totally process it like I’d like to, but I know I’ll have time to be able to do that,” he added.
Like he did in the interviews he conducted on Saturday, for Donovan it was about the village that raised him as a player and coach rather than an individual honor.
“To me it’s just so hard to put into words because you get involved in the game, play the game as a young player, and then you are so naïve at 20 years old just to think that your career is going to have you playing forever,” Donovan said. “Then all of a sudden the reality hits you and you’re sitting there saying, ‘OK, what’s my next career path.’ Then you get into coaching, and you’re not sitting there thinking, ‘OK, 35 years from now this is what’s going to happen.’ You have no idea.
“There’s a lot of things I didn’t have control over and that for me is really humbling.”
Besides Anthony and Howard, Donovan was joined in the ’25 class by the 2008 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team, the WNBA’s Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles, Miami Heat managing general partner Micky Arison, and longtime NBA referee Danny Crawford.
Day-to-day hope
Lonzo Ball missed his 18th straight game with the right wrist injury, and while there was hope he was going to play Friday against Portland, there’s now a reality that his return is more of an unknown than anything else.
“The goal is for it to be day-to-day but it’s like really hard for anyone to really know until that wrist gets to a place that he feels like he can do it,” Donovan said.
The coach reiterated that imaging hasn’t shown anything structurally wrong with the wrist. There is inflammation there, but expected with a unique sprain like the one Ball is dealing with.
Shrinking runway
The news on Sunday wasn’t great for a Tre Jones return, either, as the guard was still in a walking boot and was running out of time with the season coming to an end.
“When he takes off (the boot) he’s got to be walking pain-free,” Donovan said. “If he’s not walking pain-free they’re going to put him back in. Certainly, we’re getting up against the clock with him quite honestly, because he’s also going to need a ramp up after that as well.
“We could run out of time with him. I don’t anticipate him being back anytime soon.”