Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Chet Holmgren said on Thursday his injury recovery is going great, and he is working each day to get back onto the basketball court.
Holmgren underwent a successful procedure on Aug. 30 to address a Lisfranc injury in his right foot suffered during the CrawsOver Pro-Am in Seattle, Washington. He will miss the entire season as he rehabs from the rare basketball injury.
The No. 2 pick at first was unsure if the injury would cost him his rookie season. He hadn’t experienced a significant injury and admitted it took him some time to work past it.
It was definitely something I really had to put my mind to and spend some time to think on and kind of come to some conclusions on things and really settle my mind so I could really stop focusing on what happened and focus on what’s going to happen and what I gotta do to get where I need to be.
The 20-year-old is the latest high-profile player to miss his rookie season due to injury. Of course, Joel Embiid, Blake Griffin and Ben Simmons all missed their first seasons due to different injuries and were forced to sit and watch.
Holmgren reached out to Embiid for advice on how to handle the adversity of missing his first season. Seeing that those players eventually had success has helped Holmgren.
It is always good to be able to look at something and be able to know it has been done before; it’s not this impossible feat. Even if it was, I was going to put my hard hat on and get to work. I spoke briefly to Joel on what his experience was like and talked to one of his trainers a little bit on it and got some good words of advice.
Holmgren spends at least six hours a day at the team facility going through various treatments and other related medical activities. He can do just about everything from a workout standpoint except put weight on his right foot.
The team also puts him through some film study and other things so that he can still learn during his injury. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault loves how Holmgren has attacked his recovery.
I’ve been very impressed. He was appropriately disappointed when it first happened. He very quickly got himself into the plan. Our medical staff has done a great job of laying out a plan, not only for day-to-day but he knows what to expect over the coming months. He has things he can strive for.
He is a driven person and I think that is important for him from a motivational standpoint. He has taken the type of approach that gives us a lot of encouragement for when he is playing. His approach to this will not only impact getting healthy but how he is when he is on the other side of it.
There was quite a bit of excitement around the Thunder after drafting Holmgren. The team believed it could take the next step this season by adding him to a core that features Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Lu Dort and Tre Mann.
Those hopes took a bit of a hit, and now the team looks to be once again in the running for a high pick next year. However, the pieces could be in place for the Thunder in the future as the organization figures out what exactly it has on the roster.
Holmgren will be working hard to eventually join that core.
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