The Oklahoma City Thunder are going to desperately miss Chet Holmgren in the upcoming season.
He was set to be a breakout rookie star but the seven-foot number two draft pick will now sit out the entire year due to an injury he received while playing in a pro-am game last weekend.
Speaking of that game, some people feared that Holmgren put his financial future in jeopardy by getting hurt at the Seattle Crawsover event.
But that isn’t the case.
If Holmgren participated in an event not sanctioned like the Utah Powder League Pro Am, his future earnings would have been in jeopardy if he did not recover from this injury. https://t.co/AEtTziqSax
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) August 25, 2022
Bobby Marks did some digging and discovered that Holmgren is still covered by his contract.
The Crawsover event that led to Holmgren’s injury was sanctioned by the NBA and, therefore, his contract and the money he makes will not be harmed.
If he had played in an event that wasn’t sanctioned then, as Marks put it, “his future earnings would have been in jeopardy if he did not recover from this injury.”
Holmgren doesn’t need to worry about his future in the league so now he just needs to focus on getting better.
Holmgren Harmed
It’s great that Holmgren’s contract was written in a way that covers him in case of an injury at a sanctioned event like this one.
But that still doesn’t take away OKC’s sting of losing Holmgren before he was able to make his official NBA debut.
The Thunder will have a tough time surpassing last year’s record without Holmgren.
However, he will still be a terrific player when he is healthy – it’ll just be some time before we see that.
Holmgren’s absence not only messes with the Thunder’s upcoming season but also completely throws the Rookie of the Year competition into disarray too.
This one injury has really shifted a lot in just a few days.
