Chet Holmgren, the number 2 overall selection in this year’s NBA draft is set to miss the entire 2022-23 season due to a Lisfranc injury in his right foot.
The 7’ tall Centre out of Gonzaga suffered the injury while guarding LeBron James in a pro-am event in Seattle recently.
In a statement posted to the OKC website, GM Sam Presti remarked “Certainly, we are disappointed for Chet, especially given the excitement he had about getting on the floor with his teammates this season. 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.”
After averaging 14pts and 8.4reb during his 5 summer league games with the Thunder earlier this year, Holmgren had been one of several NBA players taking part in a series of pro-am events across the country. Fellow lottery pick Paolo Banchero, along with NBA stars Jayson Tatum, Aaron Gordon, LeBron James, and Dejounte Murray were all Seattle for the CrawsOver Pro-Am game.
Unfortunately, humidity and an overly crowded gym caused repeated wet spots to form on the court, forcing the game to ultimately be cancelled in the 2nd quarter due to unsafe conditions.
Oklahoma City has yet to announce whether or not Holmgren will require surgery to repair his foot, however the severity of the injury will nevertheless require him to be shut down for the upcoming NBA campaign.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Steve Cheng. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.