By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
In Las Vegas, preparing to extend a bid to win the Emirates NBA Cup 2025, the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Mark Daigneault, provided an update on Nikola 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,” mentioned the 40-year-old play-caller in a pregame press conference on Friday, heading to a clash with the San Antonio Spurs in T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.
Recovering from knee surgery, the 20-year-old Serbian point guard sat out the entire 2024-25 season after being drafted with the 12th overall pick. Following a solid offseason, stretching from the Summer League to the Preseason, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, with his treatment further delaying his official NBA debut.
“He showed tremendous maturity last season, watching him go through an ACL recovery. That’s a long time,” pointed out Daigneault. “There’s a lot of invisible work. There are 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.”
“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,” he added. “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.”
Support from his teammates was further confirmed by Jalen Williams.
“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,” explained the 24-year-old winger of the defending NBA champions. “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.”
“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 also referred to Topic working toward his return to action. “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.”
Despite Topic remaining sidelined, the Thunder have been dominating the 2025-26 Regular Season, banking in 24 wins in their first 25 games.
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