At one point, a torn ACL was definitely a career ending injury for every NBA player, but that isn’t the case anymore. But, not every player manages to reach the same level or potential after such an injury. Kristaps Porzingis is one of those players that is currently recovering from a torn ACL, and as of now, people are comparing him with Yao Ming, who was about his size and was a dominating player when healthy, but plagued by injuries throughout his career. Porzingis will have to prove he has the strength and will to reach his full potential in the NBA.

Here are some players who can be an example for others, as they tore their ACL and managed to reach their old level.

Jabari Parker

Jabari Parker returned to the court in January 2018, after a recovery period of about a year. This was already the second time he tore his ACL in the NBA, but both times he managed to return to action within a year. He has made clear that patience was important, even though he was already playing 3-on-3 after about 10 months. Parker was put on a minute restriction for the rest of the season, around 25 minutes. When he was allowed to go past his minute restriction, Parker showed he was still capable of great play, as he scored a season high 35-points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Now, Parker will get the chance to prove himself with a new team, the Chicago Bulls.

Zach LaVine

Jabari Parker will become the teammate of Zach LaVine with the Bulls, another player that had to recover from a torn ACL. Though he only managed to play 24 games in the 2017-2018 season, LaVine showed he still had great potential, as he averaged 16.7 points per game. This season, he will have to shows that he can continue this upward trend.

Kyle Lowry

Lowry tore his ACL back in his college days with Villanova, before he even managed to play a single game for them. It took him only four months before he was back on the court, and he still played 24 games that season. So far, Lowry hasn’t had any new problems with his ACL, though he did have to miss most of his first season due to a broken wrist and missed some games with the Rockets in 2012 because of a bacterial infection.

Danilo Gallinari

Gallinari is somewhat of a difficult case, as he tried to recover from his ACL injury without surgery at first. Eventually, he had to undergo surgery anyways, and he ended up returning to action after almost 20 months. Though this was his only ACL injury, Gallinari is still quite injury prone. He missed the last 22 games in 2016 because of an ankle injury. The last season, 2017-2018, Gallinari only managed to play 21 games in total, after he first had a glute injury, then a partial tear of his left glute muscle and last a non-displaced fracture in his right hand.