Latest Chet Holmgren Instagram post has OKC Thunder fanbase buzzing

Here. We. Go. The Oklahoma City Thunder fanbase is losing their collective minds over their prized 2nd overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, Chet Holmgren. The highest selection of the OKC Thunder rebuild suffered a Lisfranc fracture back in August at a Seattle pro-am event, which immediately ruled him out for the 2022-23 NBA season.

With Holmgren on the shelf for the season, fans are anxious to see a projected cornerstone piece of this franchise, especially as the team exceeds expectations and appears to be headed for the postseason.

Lately, we have seen Chet Holmgren do more and more work publicly. It started as participating in a post-practice shooting competition after previously just working on air; then we saw him at practice getting 5-on-0 work in, all leading up to him dunking in pregame warm ups showing off some bounce and increasingly working out in from of the media and fans pregame.

As these videos and tidbits piled up, fans were increasingly anxious to see Holmgren. Dreaming of a magical postseason return, of Chet Holmgren running out of the tunnel before the first playoff game back in Oklahoma City since Russell Westbrook wore Thunder Blue WWE style (reminder: the 2020 postseason was in the Bubble). His latest Instagram post did not help temper expectations.

“Free 7,” Chet Holmgren writes on Instagram with photos of him in Thunder gear from his on-court work before games.

This left the Thunder fanbase scrambling for answers, “what does this mean?!” wondering if there is friction between Holmgren and the organization in the age of player movement, wondering if he will return, is he hinting that he is medically cleared, what is it?

To that, I recommend: R-E-L-A-X. Chet Holmgren is out for the season, and we should not make any leaping assessments based on one Instagram caption. Everyone I have talked to continues to reiterate Holmgren will not play this season.

So, why post this? None of us are Jalen Williams, who excellently translates Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s captions; it is impossible to decipher exactly what he is trying to convey without asking Chet Holmgren.

A good guess: Holmgren is a highly competitive person. This has to agonize to watch your team go on this run from the sidelines, knowing you can help get them over the hump. Of course, the player will always want to play and always think they can go, but it is up to the team’s medical professionals to take that decision out of their hands a lot of the time for better long-term success.

Holmgren obviously can not wait to be freed onto the rest of the NBA, an ultra-confident competitor that believes he can be the difference on this team. I do not think this is anything more than him expressing his desire to play the game he loves.

As a reminder, when Holmgren was still in a walking boot in October, he tweeted, “I just wanna hoop.” This type of post is nothing new, despite us seeing him dunk and shoot on air a few times.

I beg of you, as hard as it is, do not look too deep into Chet Holmgren’s caption as it being anything more than a basketball junkie wanting to play basketball.