Paolo Banchero is heading straight for the title of Rookie of the Year but the story could have been different with Chet Holmgren on the court. In a mini-documentary published on his YouTube channel, the number 2 of the last Draft looks back on his summer of 2022, from his selection by the Thunder to his terrible injury synonymous with the white season. Engine, action!
He was announced as one of the big favorites for this 2022 NBA Draft. U19 world champion and MVP of the tournament despite a duel lost against Victor Wembanyama in the final, Chet Holmgren landed at OKC with a lot, a lot, a lot of hype. Thunder-loving to the point of tanking his workout with the Magic, the Gonzaga star is where she wants to be and Sam Presti has big plans for his new gem. With its technical profile, its announced 2.13 meters and a good ease of parking (nearly 40% in NCAA), the Unicorn ticks all the boxes to be part of the Big Three of Thunder alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey .
The day after his Draft, the young crack jumped on a plane to discover the facilities of the Thunder and on July 5 he found himself already in Utah for a first game of Summer League. 23 points, 7 rebounds and 6 blocks later, expectations around the rookie have just pierced a new ceiling. Then, direction Las Vegas to face the best prospects of the world under the eyes of all the observers during two weeks. Chet Holmgren is having a good tournament but he is not satisfied after long weeks of workouts during which he has not really been able to evolve in five against five.
While everyone tells him to take a little rest to enjoy the sun before a grueling season, the kid prefers to return to the family home near Minneapolis to start training in his corner. When his phone rings to invite him to participate in the CrawsOver Pro-Am, he does not think long and takes a plane to Seattle the next day. This is an opportunity to meet people and face more or less famous players. Associated with Paolo Banchero, he took the opportunity to score 34 points without breaking a sweat. The atmosphere is good, he is taking care of his popularity and it allows him to keep up the pace before the pre-season camps, what more could you ask for?
Chet’s road trip continues in Los Angeles, the workout capital of every NBA offseason. In La La Land, he rubs shoulders with Kevin Durant, DeMar DeRozan and Jayson Tatum in endless pick-up games. The Draft No. 2 hits the gym twice a day, six days a week. The body is being pushed to its limits but Holmgren is already seeing progress and can afford to dream big things for his first season in the NBA. He then joins a teammate of Gonzaga in Seattle for one of his summer camps with the children and Jamal Crawford renews his invitation for the CrawsOver Pro-Am. Despite the fatigue, Chet ends up accepting given the line-up announced for the event (Dejounte Murray, Jayson Tatum and LeBron James himself).
The opportunity is crazy and the atmosphere incredible for this unusual presence of the King in a summer league. Chet Holmgren is part of the opposing team and finds himself in defense on the quadruple MVP during a harmless counter-attack. Mission successful, the lay-up bounces out of the hoop, but that’s where the rookie’s fate changes.
“My team launches the counter-attack and I go to one side. I try to go up the field, I take three or four steps and I feel something strange. At first I thought the air bubble in my shoe was punctured because I don’t feel any pain at the time. I ask the coach to take me out and I take off my shoe but everything is normal. I get up from the bench and hop to the locker room. There, I try to walk a little but I have a weird feeling. I called my agent: ‘There is something wrong, I have to go to the hospital right away and do an X-ray.
I had never missed more than a week with an injury in my entire life. I didn’t know what it could be and I was freaking out. […] Looking back you may think I’m crazy defending in a Pro-Am game but I’m like that and if I had to do it again I’d do the exact same thing. I must have taken a million steps on a basketball court in my life and I guess I just took one that didn’t go my way.”
Chet Holmgren will be diagnosed with a sprain from Lisfranc with a total rupture of a ligament in the right foot and it’s all the hype that goes down all of a sudden, understanding that we won’t see him for the 2022-23 season. Today, the Thunder are still in the race to participate in the Playoffs and one wonders where this team would be with an addition like that of Chet. Instead, Holmgren is set to make his NBA debut next season and we’re already salivating at the thought of watching ROY race against Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson or Brandon Miller.
Chet Holmgren’s career suffered a small setback with this injury probably due to the chain of efforts and lack of rest. But the rookie says it himself, he does not know how to refuse an invitation to play basketball and we will not blame him for this love for his sport. For a year, he had time to work on several aspects of his game to come back even stronger and we can’t wait to see his first duels against Wemby in the NBA in a few months.