Thunder big man Chet Holmgren, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 draft, will miss his entire rookie season due to a Lisfranc injury in his right foot, the team announced today in a press release.
Holmgren is believed to have sustained the injury during a pro-am contest in Seattle on Saturday. He left the game – which was ended early due to slippery court conditions – after rolling his ankle, and a report on Wednesday indicated that the Thunder feared the injury was more serious than initially thought.
“Certainly, we are disappointed for Chet, especially given the excitement he had about getting on the floor with his teammates this season,” Thunder executive VP and general manager Sam Presti said in a statement. “We know Chet has a long career ahead of him within our organization and the Oklahoma City community.
“One of the things that most impressed us during the process of selecting Chet was his determination and focus. We expect that same tenacity will carry him through this period of time as we work together and support him during his rehabilitation.”
Holmgren, 20, was drafted behind only Paolo Banchero this June after averaging 14.1 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 3.7 blocks per game in 32 appearances (26.9 MPG) for Gonzaga during his first and only college season.
Holmgren’s ability to protect the rim and knock down three-pointers (.390 3PT%), along with his rare blend of length and athleticism, made him perhaps the most tantalizing prospect of the 2022 draft class and a cornerstone piece in the Thunder’s ongoing rebuild. While Oklahoma City hadn’t been expected to be in the playoff picture in 2022/23, it’s still a brutal blow to both the player and team that Holmgren won’t get a chance to play at all this season.
As Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN observes (via Twitter), a number of top draft picks within the last 10 or 15 years have missed their entire rookie seasons due to injuries and eventually went on to make All-NBA teams, including Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Blake Griffin. The Thunder will hope that Holmgren can follow a similar career path.
damn that sucks. hope this doesn’t ruin his career but things aren’t looking good for him
Yeah, he’s super talented. Too bad.
Yea I hate to see it smh. I was debating between him and Paolo Banchero for my rookie of the year and I made this decision right after the draft and Chet Holmgren thin frame is the reason I picked Paolo Banchero. He already has a NBA body.
Shoulda drafted Jabari
yeah i agree. chet’s a very good player but he’s too much of an injury risk. if he hadn’t been injury prone thunder could have been a play in team. feel bad for okc fans
Play in team? Under no circumstance this year.
if chet had taken off, and shai playing like he did for the first half of the past season i could see them being a 10th seed
@Jaden
Chet appeared in all 32 games Gonzaga played in his only year there and he started 31of those games. how is he “injury prone”? Now of course big men are going to have big men problems in the nba. Feet and knees are usually the issue. With Chet he’s so thin that the perceived issues weren’t going to be from non- contact issues like this but from being bruised and battered going against traditional 6’10+ bugs outweighing him by 35-75 lbs.
injury prone with how skinny he is, plus his gonzaga games were different
@Jaden
Injury prone means history of injuries and likely have more. You mean injury risk. Anyone over 6’8 is likely to have injury risk if they’re carrying 250 lbs and playing a sport like basketball where there’s a lot of running, stopping, cutting, jumping and landing. I mean his injury wasn’t degenerative. He landed on someone’s foot and rolled his ankle. I imagine the larger the foot the more likely to Jane issues but then again, Shaq wore a size 22 and I don’t recall him him missing significant time for a foot or ankle issue.
Shaw rarely played a full season. Early on he did then about 5 years in he started averaging about 60 games a year
Shaq
He got hurt going against a guy that outweighs him by 50-60lbs. It clearly was an injury caused by contact. Bron was going 75% & still went right thru him
@Sankara
Sigh… again. He injured himself jumping up and rolling his ankle on landing. That didn’t happen because he’s underweight.
I never said anything about him being underweight lol. You said it was a non contact injury which is obv false
Thats a big ass bug.
He’s not injury prone. It just shows that offseason exhibition games are risky.
Any basketball game is risky. 5v5 in practices are risky. Even 3v3 or 1v1s in practices are risky. Bron is hated by millions, it’s risky for him to go out in public at all
Rough start to his NBA career. I just had a feeling picking him was too risky. Here’s some advice, ride the bench. It worked out great for me in my career and injuries were kept to a minimum.
if this is actually you, yeah i don’t remember you having many injuries except for your surgery that kept you out for 6 months
You did a nice variation of the “this you?” reply here, kudos to you lol
O-H!!
IU
Damn! Hopefully this is a one-off thing.
Here come all the experts to explain how OKC made a mistake or that Holmgren will never play again.
Monday morning quarterbacking is so fun.
Is it Monday Morning Quarterbacking if you were on this page before the draft that he was never going to be a viable NBA player?
Never gonna be a viable nba player? Lol ok that’s crazy talk
Wait and see…
do I have to explain what the term means?
While it obviously sucks for Chet…
OKC fans shouldn’t be too disheartened whilst the West is so stacked… Chet can be their version of process Embiid… Take it slow and think long term… Presti can have it set to bubble in Chet’s 3rd year now… Just as a few of the top end of the West age out of contention…
That’s awful news. They should bring in their hometown hero, Blake Griffin.
what’s he gonna do lol
Should done that either way
Goodbye Pro Ams…
see u again next summer
Yes, bc billion dollar companies love to expose their assets to unnecessary risk…
I can guarantee you that the In House Counsels for OK City and the NBA are looking over their agreements to find ways to stop their investments from playing on wet floors in the summer.
Didn’t seem like a wet floor had anything to do with Chet gettin hurt. These guys are basketball players, they’re gonna play basketball no matter what in house counsel for the Thunder say lol. I’m old enough to remember ppl (that hate basketball) crying about keeping nba players outta international play after PGeorge broke his leg. I also remember PGeorge winning a gold medal a cpl yrs ago. NBA might be able to use $ to lessen the amount of summer pickup games & summer league play by a bit but guys are gonna play plenty of summer basketball no matter what the NBA says about it
Lmao you’re old enough to remember 2014? Weird flex but ok
I think it’s reasonable to suspect that a wet floor may have had something to do with rolling an ankle.
Jamal Crawford probably shaking his head right now.
I wonder where he would have been drafted if this happened before the draft
Prob 3rd. No lower than 5th
I dont think Houston would have taken Chet. If Paulo and Jabari were gone, maybe Keegan Murray or trade down. I am sure they are ecstatic they way the draft went.
It takes about 30 weeks for athletes to fully recover for these type of serious foot injuries but with professional (best money can buy)help with healing and rehabbing he could actually come back stronger, more prepared for the NBA grind. I am optimistic at least.
This will mean as much as Embiid’s injuries did in the long run, its not a big deal it just totally ruins OKC’s slim chances of being relevant this season.
Embiids injuries meant a lot & are still very relevant to his career going forward
Looks like the Thunder are going all in on Wembanyama
That was sorta obvious on draft night when they picked him along with Dieng & JDub. Young guys are gonna get alot of mins again this yr. And length is a high priority for them. They made that clear months ago
I wonder if this will lead to more teams pushing back when players want to play in these pick up leagues during the off-season. On one hand it’s good to see these guys just flat out loving to ball whenever and wherever they can, on the other hand they’re obviously putting themselves at risk of sustaining an injury that will affect the regular season.
Teams will just stop giving permission to play in pro-ams. Players need written permission to play in “summer games” (and maintain their coverage under the team-supplied insurance policies).
There’s a misguided belief that the players can do whatever and there’s nothing teams can do – but it’s already in the contract. That’s automatic checkmate once you sign.
The question is: will any team say no, to permission to play in a pro-am, and force the player to pay for their own rehab if injured. Team would be within their rights based on the standard NBA contract, it’s just cringeworthy
@4Quarters… first injury in decades of these types of games, it will be fine, sugar happens, right?
Just responding to captainsalty and laying out how teams could “push back” when players want to play in pro-ams.
I didn’t intimate that a team WOULD flex their contractual might. Even called it cringeworthy if they did and forced a player to pay for rehab. But I’m sure OKC internally are livid they’re gonna pay for a year of rehab, because of a pro-am mishap, for their #2 overall pick. First pro-am injury in decades or not. They’re sitting there knowing they could have said “no” which would have started the “what if” game for Chet. They didn’t and they lost.
Man, that sucks! Was really looking forward to seeing him ball with Giddy! what a bummer!
Looks like Houston lucked out with Jabari at 3.
They shoulda drafted Mathurin tbh
GSW will be in on Muscala and Favors in a couple months, bet on it.
Muscala would be a perfect fit with GSW.
Derek Favors the dinosaur? No thanks he does nothing out there. Plus that $10 million salary is a bit too much to take on even reduced by the trade deadline. He would have to be bought out and I don’t see OKC doing that with him at this point.
Muscala? He shoots the three a little but at $3.5 a year that’s too much money for the warriors. A backup to the backup would probably be a younger guy with a lower minimum salary.
The Warriors will only “be in on” guys who can help them in the playoffs. Scrubs need not apply.
Once again, A’sfaninLexington shows us “he don’t know ball.”
Favors plays defense, rebounds & sets really good screens. I understand casuals don’t notice stuff like that tho
I don’t think his pick and roll defense is good enough because of lack of Mobility at his size. He’s a Hulk. Plus no rim protection on defense either. Sure he sets nice screens but I don’t count that for much because his rolling and scoring ability is less than average. Just my opinions.
To be fair he use to be a good time protector before all the leg injuries caught up with him.
Lol no
They are going to tank anyway.
Yup, pretty evident that’s their plans when they immediately say without hesitation that the kid’s going to be out the entire year. No wiggle room, no chance he’s back for the playoffs, none of that.
Poor kid. I guess this means SGA and Giddey will only be playing 30 games this season before they conduct their annual tank.
Dang this team could have been exciting but I guess will see what next year looks like with another lottery pick.
By the time they come out of rebuild they will have a full roster of top lottery picks.
So sad for Chet… I was so excited to see him dominate in his rookie season!
Get well soon my man!
Lisfranc injuries suck. Hopefully he comes back healthy.
Just the height of irony that this happens to the Thunder. If that franchise stayed in Seattle, does a super publicized pro-am with active NBA players even happen?
He should be in G-league anyway. Not ready for NBA. Best thing that can happen. Lay in bed stay home. And eat all day every day. Gain 60 LBs by NOT playing…….
Looking forward to a Chet and Wembanyama starting lineup next season