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Chet Holmgren’s injury should not be an indictment on NBA players in Pro-Am leagues

It wasn’t supposed to go like this for Chet Holmgren. But we shouldn’t be so quick to place blame on where it happened.

The biggest basketball event of the summer was set to take place in late August in Seattle — a market that has been without an NBA franchise since the Supersonics relocated in 2008 and rebranded as the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Jamal Crawford, a veteran of 20 NBA seasons and a three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year award winner, has been running Seattle’s Pro-Am basketball league since 2004. Rebranded as The CrawsOver ProAm League in 2017, the summer league has held it down for hoops in the wake of the departure of the Sonics in the Emerald City, along with the WNBA’s four-time champion Seattle Storm.

The CrawsOver plays its games at Seattle Pacific University, which is also where the Storm practice (and where the visiting Washington Mystics had been practicing during their postseason series against the Storm). Last week, Crawford confirmed that LeBron James would be making his CrawsOver debut.

James had already made one high-profile Pro-Am cameo this summer, taking the floor at Los Angeles’ Drew League next to DeMar DeRozan in what was a highly competitive game. It was James’ first game at the Drew League since the 2011 lockout summer, and it coincided with the NBA streaming a Pro-Am league for the first time.

As big as that game in Los Angeles was, Crawford had even more cameos lined up.

Boston Celtics All-NBA small forward Jayson Tatum was also set to debut. Seattle-based NBA All-Stars Dejounte Murray and Isaiah Thomas would be back. Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon was playing. CJ Elleby, currently on a training-camp deal with the Timberwolves after two seasons with the Trail Blazers, made an appearance. Crawford lined up three key Seattle-based 2022 rookie class members: top overall pick Paolo Banchero, 17th pick Tari Eason and 24th pick MarJon Beauchamp. Holmgren, the second overall pick out of Gonzaga, rounded out the group.

But the event was marred with unfortunate circumstances stemming from unusually high temperatures in the city. The floor hadn’t been a problem early in the game or in the previous games of the day at The CrawsOver, but the gym doors were closed on this day due to a pulled fire alarm, which Crawford said that the league had never done. That led to the floor eventually becoming slippery. At one point, Beauchamp went up to dunk and was unable to do so because of the lack of traction on the floor. Then, Holmgren pulled up lame early in the exhibition while trying to guard James in transition.

Crawford made the decision to end the game in the second quarter due to player safety concerns.

Four days later, the news came via The Athletic‘s Shams Charania that Holmgren’s foot injury was serious.

Last September, the LA Clippers lost 2021 second round point guard Jason Preston due to torn ligaments in his right foot just before training camp. Preston’s injury came at the team’s practice facility, and he landed awkwardly on Amir Coffey’s foot on a fast break. October surgery cost him months of action, and he wound up redshirting his rookie season.

Here’s the video of what happened to Holmgren:

The Athletic’s Michael Shawn-Dugar observed that while the floor became a problem eventually, that did not appear to be the case when Holmgren landed awkwardly. It was a sentiment shared by Norman Powell of the LA Clippers, who recovered from his own foot injury from a game in February and played in the Drew League earlier this month.

“Injuries are part of the game,” Powell said in a text to The Athletic regarding Holmgren’s injury. “If you play Pro-Am, pickup, Drew League, etc. I don’t think the floor was the issue.”

The Athletic’s John Hollinger told me that players typically have a “love of the game” clause that allows them to participate in summer events such as Pro-Am leagues. Hollinger adds that the nature of Pro-Am leagues — The CrawsOver, like most Pro-Am leagues, is free of cost — is almost viewed by teams the same way as a player working out on their own.

Drew League commissioner Chaniel Smiley learned of the injury to Holmgren in Seattle on Wednesday. Smiley expressed concern for Holmgren’s injury and the fact that it happened at The CrawsOver, but she does not believe that this incident will have a looming effect on Pro-Am leagues in the future.

“Pro-Ams have been going on for about six decades now,” Smiley said The Athletic. “The only thing I see is that the NBA is possibly being tighter just around the venue space, the choice of venue, to get clearance. Making sure the conditions in the gym are proper. We have proper AC, the court is in good condition, just things like that. That we have staffing to kind of control those types of elements around however many people are able to get in. And we do our best as Pro-Ams. We can’t control every single situation, because we understand, Pro-Ams are free. All the stuff we do is for the community.”

The spirit of the Pro-Am being for the community was something that was expressed by Crawford in the wake of responding to Saturday’s events. While Crawford was appreciative of Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke offering up the new Climate Pledge Arena for CrawsOver games next year, Crawford was also wary of not losing the more intimate feeling for a Pro-Am, something that draws pro players used to playing in larger buildings.

“The NBA, I feel, they understand and started to notice especially this year the importance of Pro-Am basketball in the inner city,” Smiley said. “How it intertwines with their athletes. Because their athletes come from the inner city — this is where they come from. The Pro-Am lifestyle. They probably used to play in the Pro-Ams in the backyard and outdoor courts and stuff. And then when they make it to the big leagues, you know, they come back to pay homage. So I think it will be a messed up situation that’s detrimental if they were to pull the sanctions from Pro-Ams and not allow their players to play.”

There will always be injury risk for players, no matter the stage of their career. Pro-Ams have been a good way for players to do what they do best against a different level of competition and in front of a different crowd setting. What happened to Holmgren is unfortunate, but it should not validate the concerns of NBA-only fans or team personnel who believe that players should save themselves for 82 regular-season games. After all, these leagues only play games once a week for the most part, and NBA players rarely play every single week in a selection of Pro-Am games throughout a summer.

“This is like their NBA,” Smiley said of a Pro-Am setting for the community as well as the non-NBA players who participate along with NBA players. “So we don’t want to have a situation where we have to cancel everything because an injury from an NBA player took place unfortunately. But I feel like it could have happened anywhere. It could have happened with him working out, training in the offseason. Could have happened playing outdoors in his own backyard. It could have happened at any time… I hate that it happened. But I don’t think it’s going to affect us in a situation where they’ll pull our sanction.”

(Top Photo: Cassy Athena/Getty Images)

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