Philadelphia fans used to believe the 76ers were cursed. During the days of the tanking era, the team’s high-end draft picks often suffered significant injuries to start their careers.
Nerlens Noel battled a knee injury and missed his first NBA season. Joel Embiid entered the 2014 NBA Draft after getting surgery on his foot, which prevented him from debuting that year.
The following season, Ben Simmons joined the Sixers as the No. 1 draft pick, and before he could make his official debut after dominating the Summer League, Simmons was ruled out for the year due to a foot injury.
So, the Sixers can understand what the Oklahoma City Thunder are going through right now. As a team that’s rebuilding and putting together a strong roster of young and promising players, the Thunder hoped to start turning things around as their second-overall pick Chet Holmgren was slated to join the roster this year.
Unfortunately, Holmgren will follow the same path as Embiid and Simmons and is on pace to miss the entire 2022-2023 NBA season.
Delaying the Debut
Like most NBA players, Holmgren was looking to get an offseason run at a Pro-Am matchup. Not too long after taking the court, Holmgren made headlines as he made a solid defensive stop against Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James in transition.
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But the big story wasn’t about Holmgren stopping James. Instead, the basketball world was concerned about the rookie’s injury, which he suffered on the play, as he was seen limping afterwards.
After undergoing tests on his foot, Holmgren will miss the entire 2022-2023 season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
While that’s unfortunate news for the Thunder, they shouldn’t fear that Holmgren can’t come back better than ever.
While players such as Embiid and Simmons battled through significant foot injuries early on in their careers, they’ve found their fair share of success so far.
For Simmons he is recognized as a three-time All-Star and is one of the league’s most dominant defensive players. Over the last two years, Embiid was the NBA’s MVP runner-up and has four All-Star appearances under his belt.
As long as Holmgren recovers well and continues to work on his game, there is a good chance the former Gonzaga standout bounces back and makes an imprint on the game.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.
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