Nikola Topic, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s No. 12 pick in 2024, is undergoing chemotherapy to treat testicular cancer, team president Sam Presti announced Thursday.
Topic, 20, was out since early in training camp, recovering from having undergone a testicular procedure.
“The procedure was necessary in order to do a biopsy and the results of the biopsy have been returned and he is dealing with a case of testicular cancer,” Presti told the media. “Now, he has a tremendous group of oncologists both at [Oklahoma University Hospital] and MD Anderson, and they are extremely positive about his outlook in dealing with this situation. It’s important to note that testicular cancer is the most cured form of cancer among males, but the treatment option for him right now as recommended by the oncologist is chemotherapy.
“Tope didn’t want to make this information public until he had begun the actual treatments, which he has recently. He’s been in here, he’s training, he’s working out. Through this entire process he’s been able to do that but as we all know, this would be a challenging treatment process to go through. But the team of physicians he has around him, like I said before, extremely positive about his long-term outlook.
“In terms of our expectations for him or anything like that, our only expectations of him are to focus on this. This is his most important priority. He’ll be back playing basketball, you know, when he’s able to but we’re not putting any type of expectations on that obviously. He has our total support, encouragement, and love.”
Topic impressed at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas this past July and played 31 minutes in Oklahoma City’s preseason opener, before undergoing the testicular procedure that had him out and led to the cancer diagnosis. On the bright side, not only is his prognosis relatively favorable, but also there is precedent of a player returning from this diagnosis and having a long career — Brazilian big man Nene went through this early in his career and went on to play 11 seasons after, noted Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes.
Prayers up for Thunder guard Nikola Topic following his testicular cancer diagnosis. Former NBA big man Nene also battled testicular cancer and underwent chemotherapy during his NBA career, missing 76 days during the 2007-08 season. Nene played 11 more seasons after his return.
— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) October 30, 2025
Topic missed the entire 2024-25 Thunder championship season due to a torn ACL, and he has yet to step on the court for an actual NBA game. That said, the 6’6″ guard out of Serbia is still part of the long-term plans in OKC.