Two years ago, Chicago Bulls player Lonzo Ball received a knee cartilage transplant. On Wednesday, he met the the family of the man who donated the cartilage, the Associated Press reports.
Alex Reinhardt, 20, died in February 2023. Ball met with the late man’s family before the Bulls played the Miami Heat in Chicago.
The guard took photos with the family, who hails from Dakota Duunes, South Dakota, and signed basketball jerseys. Alex’s mother, father, an older and younger brother, and a soon-to-be sister-in-law were present.
During Ball’s first year in Chicago, a knee injury forced him to miss a number of games during the 2021-22 season. In March 2023, after several failed procedures, Ball underwent a meniscus and cartilage transplant in his left knee.
Ball has played in 35 games after missing the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons since the surgery. Although his knee is fine now, he did miss Wednesday’s game due to a sprained wrist.
Angie Reinhardt, Alex’s mother, explained that the family recently received a call from the donor network that an athlete who received some of her son’s tissue wanted to meet them. After several weeks, they discovered it was Ball. A meeting was arranged after that.
“It’s been extremely emotional,” Angie Reinhardt said. “So much happiness comes with it, too. All of the people that are donor recipients of Alex’s, we’re just blessed. We’ve had mothers from some people that have said things. Now, we get to meet Lonzo. It’s just a blessing to be able to watch people do well with their knees or anything because of Alex. Of course, we wish he was here.
“To be able to keep helping people after his death really feels like a blessing to all of us,” she added.
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