Lonzo Ball meets family of meniscus donor who helped revive his NBA career

CHICAGO (WGN) — After the Reinhardt family lost their 20-year-old son two years ago, they decided to donate his organs. Little did they know, one of the patients his donations helped was Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball.

“After he passed away, his mother and I said, ‘Yes, we want to donate if we can help other people,’” said Carl Reinhardt, Alex Reinhardt’s father.

Alex Reinhardt was a 20-year-old football player from South Dakota who died by suicide. Just this week, his parents found out who one of the 20 patients that received his organs and tissues is.

“The gal said I think there is a professional athlete involved,” Carl Reinhardt said. “We didn’t know much until the last week or five-to-six days. They reached out and said it was Lonzo Ball.”

Ball underwent an osteochondral allograft, the medical terminology used to describe a cadaver meniscus transplant, in March 2023 after recurring injuries to his left knee that sidelined him indefinitely.

“I’ve never met a donor family for a graft that I have handled and a patient I have placed one in,” said Dr. Brian Cole, a surgeon for Midwest Orthopedics at Rush Medical Center.

Dr. Cole is also the head orthopedic doctor for the Bulls and performed the surgery. Ball received Alex Reinhardt’s meniscus, which acts as a shock absorber in the knee, on top of a cartilage graft from Dr. Cole.

After being out of basketball for two-and-a-half years, the procedures helped Ball make his return in October.

“I had a goal to get back on the court and I knew it was a long journey, a long process,” Ball told WGN News’ Dina Bair in October 2024. “But it all paid off because this is what I was looking forward to.”

Wednesday night, the Reinhardt family got to meet Ball before the Bulls took on the Miami Heat.

“It’s going to mean a lot,” Carl Reinhardt said with tears in his eyes, moments before meeting Ball. “It brings tears of joy to me and bittersweet closure a little bit with some of this that we’ve been going through.”

For the Reinhardt family, knowing a piece of their son plays on, brings them a sense of peace.

“It’s something you live with every day,” Carl Reinhardt said. “But it just gave [us] another way to heal.”