2023-10-25 22:17:20
Chet Holmgren (ball carrier). (NBA Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
“I have been injured several times before, but I have never been away from the basketball court for so long. I remember that in junior high school, I even put a plaster on my right hand, but I still had to practice shooting with my left hand and continue to play bullfighting.” He looked like a big boy. Chet Holmgren had a wry smile on his face. He never thought that he would suffer from unexpected injuries just as his NBA career was regarding to start.
The former five-star high school student, college super recruit, and second overall pick in the NBA draft was guarding LeBron James in an amateur league on August 25 last year. After an inconspicuous body contact in the air, Holmgren seemed to feel something was wrong with his right ankle. The doctor later diagnosed him with an injury to the metatarsal joint. To be on the safe side, the Thunder directly announced that he would be out of the 2022-2023 NBA season, allowing him to concentrate on waiting for the injured area to recover healthily.
“Hearing the team’s decision was like a bolt from the blue. I have never missed basketball so much. This is one of the most painful things I have ever experienced.” He recalled his current mood.
Holmgren carries a basketball with him wherever he goes. He inherited the excellent athletic genes from his father who is 7 feet tall and played for the college team. In addition, he received orthodox basketball training as a teenager, and he truly loves the game. During the 12 months of injury recovery, he was always the first to arrive at the team’s exclusive training center and the last to leave. He completed the following procedures day following day: rehabilitation, retraining, and shooting while standing on one foot until exhaustion. Once that’s done, go home and take a nap before continuing the next day.
The scathing people on the Internet who questioned and criticized Holmgren unceremoniously following his injury did not hurt him in the slightest. Ever since high school, he has been tired of hearing such comments as “too tall, too thin, and fragile.” Holmgren Said: “I don’t have time to sit there and worry regarding all kinds of criticism and feel sad. I can only wake up every day and insist on following my own schedule and let my football skills speak for me.”
In fact, metatarsal joint injuries are extremely rare for basketball players, and are generally more likely to happen to American football players. At the time of the incident, the floor was slightly slippery with sweat, and it had nothing to do with the so-called tall and thin body or vitreous constitution.
With the additional 6 kilograms of weight gained through hard work and retraining, Holmgren’s body lines were obviously stronger when he reported to the summer league this year. Throughout the summer, through the arrangement of team personnel, he trained with senior Kevin Durant in Los Angeles. Except for the difference in shooting ability, the two had almost the same body template when they entered the league, and KD slapped all those who underestimated him in the face. This is what Holmgren will do in the new season.
Throughout the past year, Holmgren has not been idle at all. In addition to rehabilitation courses, he has also fine-tuned his shooting movements and added a considerable amount of ball-handling exercises to make his basketball skills more refined, just like KD, and this The former Thunder star said of his junior: “I think those who play once morest him in the league will be in big trouble.”
People can point out too many advantages regarding Holmgren, such as a tall man, strong mobility, and wide defensive coverage. However, what is easily overlooked is his high golf IQ and strong team awareness. “I knew early on that I was not the kind of player who might score 30 points a night. I had to impact the game in other ways, and early coaches instilled in me the importance of defense. That determines your upper limit, and defense cannot You only rely on your body, but more often you need to use your brain to predict your opponent’s next shot in advance.”
Although he is defined as a “unicorn” player, Holmgren always pursues “team first”. He said: “If it is a 1-on-1 bullfight, you can indeed dominate the game by yourself, but in a 5-on-5 confrontation, you need all the Only when people perform better than each other can we win. How to improve my help to my teammates has always been the focus of my thinking. Compared with winning the game, personal data is not important to me at all, because I am that A guy who really wants to win.”
“I can accept any position the coach gives me, and that’s okay. I sat on the bench in the AAU league as a teenager, and now I still have the experience of not being able to play for a whole year. There are too many talented teammates on the team. The supporting role is just right.” His mature mentality that is not commensurate with his age has led the management to speak highly of Holmgren. We have seen too many self-righteous ball tyrants who only care regarding statistics and don’t care regarding the life or death of the team, and he knows it very well. The team currently has talented teammates such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey who are responsible for grabbing points. As the No. 5, he must do the hard work of consolidating rebounds, protecting the penalty area, and running to help pick-and-rolls, without any complaints. .
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Holmgren made a strong comeback, averaging 16.5 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks in the summer league. In the recent 4 official warm-up games, he averaged less than 20 minutes of playing time, averaging 16.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.0 Blocking, shooting rate is an excellent 57.9%, and three-pointers achieved a 50% shooting rate in a small sample of 12 shots!
While the world is fixating on the San Antonio Spurs’ new No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama, Holmgren, who is likely to be his lifelong enemy, is quietly rising, and perhaps they will join forces to change the face of modern basketball.
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