![]() ![]() ![]() “And building basketball courts where there might not be, I see first-hand how well that can help people, so I kinda want to pay that forward.” “Something that’s super important to me is sharing the gift of basketball to other kids,” he said. It’s a matter of giving other kids the same opportunities that he had growing up. In the future, Holmgren hopes to build basketball courts in underserved communities, perhaps in or around his new city. “Basketball’s taken me many different places and a lot of different communities have embraced me, so I want to return the favor and embrace them as well,” Holmgren said. Earlier this year, he partnered with Topps and Minnesota charity Can Do Canines, which provides service dogs to those with disabilities, on a special edition trading card to benefit the organization. Holmgren already has experience combining business and giving back. Guys like Kevin Durant have made really wise off-court investments.” He’s started a whole school in his hometown and now he’s starting a hospital. “There’s been a lot of NBA players and athletes that are more than just athletes who do great things off the court for themselves as well as their communities,” he said. ![]() While there’s no universally agreed-upon player comp for Holmgren, he wants to model his professional life, from on-court success to off-court investments, after Kevin Durant and LeBron James. Whoever ends up with Holmgren will get a guy who is reserved off the court, but whose ambitions - in basketball and business - are apparent. You have a bad game, you have another one the next night.” Returning the Favor “You might have a great game, but you have a game the next night so you can’t sit there and be too happy about it. “ just giving me advice on what the NBA is like, never getting too high, never getting too low,” he said. The biggest lesson he’s learned so far? That it’s a long, long season. Holmgren says he anticipates going back to them as his rookie year gets going and he adjusts to life in the league. Over the past few months, he’s had the chance to pick the brains of NBA-ers Domantas Sabonis, Killian Tillie, and Brandon Clarke as well. He’s talked a lot with Jalen Suggs, who not only went to Gonzaga but also Minnehaha Academy in Minnesota with Holmgren. “I’m doing some media stuff then it’s right to work,” he told Boardroom this week, “lacing up my shoes and getting on the court.”Īs a now-former Gonzaga Bulldog, Holmgren has had the benefit of tapping into a rich Gonzaga alumni base in the pros. If it is truly OKC, he’ll head to a team that finished the 2021-22 season 24-58 with the second-worst winning percentage in the NBA. On Friday morning, he will fly out to his new city to do the full-on media car wash and get right to work on integrating himself into the system of an entirely new franchise. Holmgren’s life will change the moment it’s official. 2 overall.Īs team boards finalize today, the 1-2-3 of the NBA Draft is increasingly firm, per sources: Jabari Smith to Orlando, Chet Holmgren to Oklahoma City and Paolo Banchero to Houston.- Adrian Wojnarowski JThe Rookie Whirlwind That’s all to say that Holmgren will hear his name called early on Thursday night, and all indications are he is headed to Oklahoma City at No. Perhaps he won’t be able to out-muscle the strongest guys in the NBA at the same time, he’s already demonstrated elite rim protector ability. He could get injured, they say (despite the fact that he has no notable injury history). It all combines to make Holmgren a matchup nightmare, and his slight frame indicates that there’s plenty of room to build himself up even more physically.īut that frame is exactly why some analysts won’t cast him as the best prospect in the draft. He shot 40% from three, but was also second in the country in two-point field goal percentage (73.7%). At a full 7 feet tall, he was a walking double-double for Mark Few’s Gonzaga and averaged nearly four blocks per game on the other end. Depending on where you sit, this is either for better or for worse. There’s no prospect in this year’s NBA Draft who has had more discussion around him than Chet Holmgren. The much-heralded prospect out of Gonzaga may not have a perfect NBA player comp, but the team that drafts Chet Holmgren will have a player ready to make noise on and off the court. ![]()
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