Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Chet Holmgren, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, will miss the entirety of his rookie season after suffering a Lisfranc injury to his right foot. The injury happened at a CrawsOver Pro-Am game and it has once again ignited conversations about whether NBA players should play in summer leagues, pick-up games or take part in any pro-am activities.
Consider this my plea to the players, whether veteran, rookie or anything in between — don’t stop hooping in the offseason.
Obviously the injury is incredibly devastating, and I feel for Holmgren. The 20-year-old center/forward with guard-like handles and range out of Gonzaga is widely thought to be a generational talent and was already a favorite to win Rookie of the Year honors.
This is also incredibly unfortunate for the Thunder, who had been putting together a wildly intriguing roster of high draft picks and it looked like this could finally be a year that they could start trying to win games and see what they are capable of. Now, their rebuilding timeline will be delayed by a year.
The sweat had barely been wiped off the faces of the players in the game in which Holmgren was injured before the takes began to make their way through the basketball world.
Why was Holmgren playing in a CrawsOver game? LeBron James was there, too, why are these guys risking injury for these silly exhibitions? This is going to scare players away from the pro-am circuits.
Right off the bat, I want to say that basketball players should be playing basketball. That’s what they do, that’s what they love to do, that’s what they’re better at than anyone else and it’s what keeps them improving.
Naturally, there is a risk of injury everywhere, especially when playing basketball. NBA players get injured at their own practice facilities all the time, and that’s the most controlled environment that they’re in. They’re at risk of slipping and falling on a wet spot in the kitchen of their own home and we certainly aren’t going to be asking players to remain in a hermetically-sealed bubble anytime they aren’t on their team’s playing court.
I realize that playing basketball out of season is different than standing in a kitchen, but this is a conversation that happens almost annually at this point because of international NBA players who get injured playing with their national teams or the risks that they run when they play in the Drew League, CrawsOver, Miami Pro League, Powder League or any other exhibition showcase.
In order to fully understand how these things play out, you need to know that there are already a lot of rules in place that govern what NBA players can do in the offseason.
When players play for national teams whether in Eurobasket, Olympic qualifying or any other iteration, those leagues have to carry insurance for NBA players to offset the risk of injury.
For non-national team play — any pro-am or exhibition showcase — there are certain leagues that are sanctioned by the NBA and those include the Drew League, played in Los Angeles, and the CrawsOver games played in Seattle. But there are also individual contract stipulations that matter.
A standard NBA contract restricts a lot of activities that an NBA player can do outside of playing games and practicing with the team. But it’s pretty common for a player to have an Exhibit 5, which is basically a clause that allows a player to play offseason basketball, pick-up games, or do other types of training away from the team staff. This is commonly referred to as the “love of the game” clause and was largely made famous after Michael Jordan’s own Exhibit 5 allowed him to play basketball whenever and wherever he wanted.
But, without an Exhibit 5 clause, a standard NBA contract requires prior written permission from a team in order for a player to participate in any exhibition or offseason basketball activities. Although league sources said that players will sometimes just not listen to what they are told to do, and often the rules are loosely enforced.
For example, LeBron James is probably not asking permission to do anything, and the Lakers probably wouldn’t punish him for playing in pro-am games. For a lesser known player, playing in a non-sanctioned league like the Powder League in Utah, could be risky. But the exposure could outweigh the risk, depending on who you ask.
For the sake of another example, let’s say that hypothetically, Holmgren played in the CrawsOver games without the Thunder’s permission. Well, if they didn’t care about Holmgren’s future or weren’t invested in having a potential generational talent on their team they might find him in breach of his contract or just waive him after he suffered a season-ending injury. But, the Thunder will gladly take it on the chin and wait another year for Holmgren. He’s not getting waived by anyone. So status matters.
And it is particularly the status of the players who show up to these summer exhibitions that makes them so unique and important.
Fans of basketball don’t always get to watch basketball up close. But NBA players are not compensated for their pro-am appearances and those games are usually either free to the public on a first-come first-served basis or are incredibly affordable.
Fans this summer were able to watch LeBron James and DeMar DeRozan suit up together in the Drew League for free. Fans watched Donovan Mitchell throw down highlight-worthy dunks in Miami for free. Fans in Seattle saw Holmgren and James battling in the game in which Holmgren was injured and they also saw countless other basketball heroes and rising stars for absolutely nothing.
The people deserve these moments after years of the NBA pricing out the average fan, and fear of injury should not be the governing aspect. That’s why the Exhibit 5 clause is known as the “love of the game” clause and not the “maybe if I’m not too scared I’ll get hurt” clause.
Die-hard hoopers love playing in these exhibitions just as much as the fans love watching them. It’s why Jamal Crawford, retired NBA player, three-time Sixth Man of the Year winner and self-proclaimed basketball junkie took over the CrawsOver Pro-Am in Seattle and rebranded it.
People who love basketball don’t just love it from October to June.
National team play continues to take the game of basketball into every corner of the world and these pro-am leagues not only give fans a glimpse of the biggest names from the NBA but also highlight local men’s and women’s collegiate players as well as boy’s and girl’s teams from area high schools.
Could the NBA try to put tougher language into the contracts and keep players from playing in the offseason? Yes, the could. Could players start to shy away from pro-am appearances fearing injury? They absolutely could. But I hope they don’t, for the love of the game.