The Oklahoma City Thunder’s seven-foot-one center Chet Holmgren played in every game of his team’s 2025 playoff run so far, 16 straight games. But while it may seem like showing up to play would be the minimum requirement for a professional athlete being paid $10.8 million for the year, for Holmgren simply getting on to the court and staying there has been a major accomplishment.
The 23-year-old from Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been badly beset by injuries in the three years since he was taken second overall by the Thunder, out of Gonzaga, in the 2022 NBA draft.
In fact, Holmgren has played in only 140 of the 274 regular season and postseason games the Thunder has played since he came into the league, prior to the 2024-2025 Finals â just 51 percent.
In what would have been his rookie season, the 2022-2023 campaign, Holmgren did not play at all, missing all 82 regular season games and the two play-in games for Oklahoma City.
What Major Injuries Has Holmgren Suffered?
What is going on with Holmgren? Why has he missed such a large amount of time, even as he has collected $31,363,868 in salary from the Thunder?
The first major injury of Holmgren’s career happened before he had played a single NBA game. On August 20, 2022, about two months after the draft, Holmgren took part in the annual CrawsOver Pro-Am game in Seattle, along with an array of NBA stars.
One of those stars was LeBron James. On a play with Holmgren as the the last defender against a fast0-breaking James, the not-yet rookie jumped to contest the James layup that finished the play.
When he landed, he immediately began hobbling, obviously hurt.
Holmgren flew to Oklahoma City the following day to be checked out by doctors under team supervision. The diagnosis was a Lisfranc injury â damage to the ligament that holds together a cluster of small bones on the top of the foot.
In Holmgren’s case, the damage to that ligament, known as the Lisfranc ligament, was severe. He required surgery to repair a tear in his Lisfranc ligament. The recovery process caused him to miss the entire season.
The following season, 2023-2024, Holmgren came back strong. He started all 82 regular season games, averaging 29.4 minutes per game, and finishing second to Victor Wembanyama in Rookie of the Year voting.
He also started all 10 of the Thunder’s postseason games that season, as Oklahoma City swept the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round before losing in six games to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals.
Injuries Again Flare Up in 2024-2025 Campaign
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Holmgren this season.
In a November 11 game against the Golden State Warriors, Holmgren jumped to contest an Andrew Wiggins layup. He crashed to the floor, landing on his side and suffering what was diagnosed as a right iliac wing fracture.
What’s that?
The ilium bone is a large bone in the upper pelvis that connects the pelvis area to the hip.
“It’s also known as a Duverney fracture, named after French surgeon Joseph Guichard Duverney’s first description of the injury in his 1751 book,” according to reporter Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman.
An iliac fracture can occur when the hip is subject to a high-energy collision â in Holmgren’s case, that’s what happened when his hip hit the floor.
The injury caused the second-year player to miss 39 games, unable to return until February 5, 2025. He also missed another 11 games with various minor injuries, including to his back, leg, ankle and hip, as well as due to normal rest. In all, Holmgren played only 32 games for the Thunder in the regular season, but has yet to miss a postseason game as they enter the Finals against the Indiana Pacers.
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