Chet Holmgren’s Decision to Face LeBron James After Refusing at First Led to ‘Freak Injury’

2022 NBA Draft’s #2 pick Chet Holmgren missed all of the 2022-23 season after suffering a Lisfranc injury in his foot during Jamal Crawford’s Crawsover Pro-Am in Seattle. The injury occurred when the then 20-year-old was guarding LeBron James in a first-break situation during the Pro-Am contest. On Podcast P with Paul George, Holmgren revealed the circumstances that shaped his injury.

He compared the invitation to the star-studded Crawsover Pro-Am and matching up against LBJ to Cooper Flagg’s appearance in the 2024 pre-Olympic practice games against the stacked Team USA.

Holmgren confessed that he was overworked during the 2022 summer. But the rookie didn’t attribute his injury to excessive work. He labeled it a “freak injury” that couldn’t have been avoided.

But the OKC Thunder center almost dodged it as he initially wanted to drop out of the competition after a week-long grueling workout. But then he couldn’t escape the lure of going up against elite NBA athletes.

Holmgren explained,

“I don’t think it’s like a injury that happened because I overdid it. It was a freak injury you can’t really control, sometimes you just take one wrong step, but I definitely overdid it.”

“I even told JC, [Crawford] ‘I’m beat from the workouts this week, I don’t thing I’m going to be able to play’, and then you just know ignorance. I texted him like 15 minutes later, ‘Save me a jersey, I am pulling up to hoop,‘” he added.

Holmgren then touched upon the play where he got injured. He couldn’t recollect exactly what led to the injury, but ascribed it to his decision to take on a muscular player like LeBron James in a fastbreak with his thin physique.

At the time, it didn’t look like a serious injury because there wasn’t a ton of contact. But it caused him to miss a whole season.

Chet Holmgren recovered brilliantly from the early setback

After an outstanding season with Gonzaga, Holmgren was expected to be an effective contributor from his rookie year itself. He sizzled NBA fans with his enthralling two-way game during the 2022 Summer League. But then the injury at Crawsover Pro-Am caused him to miss the entire 2022-23 season.

It meant a prolonged wait for his official NBA debut. It wasn’t easy for the basketball-obsessed Holmgren to miss his first season. In a September 2023 interview with OKC Thunder reporter Royce Young, Holmgren said, 

“I’d never really missed basketball so that was one of the hardest experiences, being told to go home and sit down.”

But he started his NBA career with a bang. His exceptional 7’6” wingspan was even too much for elite NBA athletes. At one point, he took over 2024 ROTY Victor Wembanyama in the Rookie of the Year ladder briefly.

His terrific play helped the Thunder to secure the first seed during the 2023-24 season. They are now harboring championship ambitions with the expectations that Holmgren grows into a superstar soon.