3 ways Chet Holmgren’s injury impacts OKC Thunder 2022-23 season
By Rylan Stiles
The Oklahoma City Thunder invested their 2nd overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft on Chet Holmgren a 7’1 big man out of Gonzaga. Over the weekend, Holmgren participated in the Seattle pro-am event “The Crawsover” put on by NBA veteran Jamal Crawford with NBA stars like LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, and fellow top pick Paolo Banchero. The slippery court conditions ended the game at halftime, but not before Holmgren suffered a right foot injury.
The last few days have been a rollercoaster of emotions for OKC Thunder fans. When the initial play happened, everyone expected this to be just a roll ankle, or something minor to that degree. However, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported Wednesday there was fear Holmgren had ligament damage.
That is when the downward spiral for the fanbase started, everyone was panicking, and quick to have an extreme take. The OKC Thunder announced Thursday morning that Chet Holmgren will miss the entire 2022-23 NBA season.
3 ways Chet Holmgren’s season-ending injury impacts the 2022-23 OKC Thunder season
Sam Presti clarified that this Lisfranc injury in his right foot is a “rupture of the tendon and not a Fracture.” This injury will force Chet Holmgren to miss his entire rookie season. He is not the first, and sadly will not be the last, top pick to miss an entire season. Even the OKC Thunder have an example of this way back in the 2003 NBA Draft.
The Oklahoma City Thunder selected Nick Collison 12th overall out of Kansas University where he missed his first NBA season with shoulder injuries. He did not log an NBA minute until the 2004-05 season. Collison went on to be the first member of the OKC Thunder to have his number retired and is still part of the organization’s front office.
Sam Presti mentioned to those of us in the media on Thursday, when the Holmgren news was announced, that Collison will work with the 2nd overall pick teaching him how to handle this adversity and continue to grow from it despite not being able to play in games.
Around the NBA names like Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Blake Griffin, and Zion Williamson have all missed entire seasons due to injury within their first three seasons (and for all but Williamson, missing their first season), and have all made All-Star games since.
Even in Bricktown, Kevin Durant played just 27 games in the 2014-15 season due to a broken foot and missed the entire 2019-20 season in Brooklyn rehabbing from an Achilles injury.
These things happen, and while it is easy to hit the panic button, Chet Holmgren’s career is far from doomed over this one misfortune. Let’s take a look at 3 ways the 2022-23 OKC Thunder season is impacted by this news.