Basketball & Business with Chet Holmgren | Boardroom Cover Story

0:00I was out hooping in LA. I was telling you to work out with Drew and he works out with Joel too. And we're playing pickup. He comes in the gym right before we're starting. He's like, kid's probably not that good, so he's like kind of bullshitting. And then first game, I had like a turnaround to like win the game. And then Drew went up to him and was like basically talking shit. Drew's thing is he's talking shit to you like 24-7. So he's talking shit to Joel, and I wasn't talking shit to him. I knew better. And he was like, okay, I'm going to turn it on. And then it's like skill and physical ability.

0:31and I think he's probably at the peak of both, especially when it comes to just like one-on-one basketball, and he turned it into a one-on-one game. We're playing pickup, and he's like, you're not allowed to double, and he put eight people on the other side of the court, and we play one-on-one. Not a whole lot you can do in that scenario. You know, fadeaways, bumps, he's got all the footwork too, so that's kind of where I realized this is where the bar is. This is what you've got to compete with every night in the NBA, And I think that was huge for me having that experience before I got hurt, kind of figuring out where I needed to get myself to.

1:06And here we are now. We get a picture here. Let's get a picture. Yep, yep, yep.

1:22Rookie sensation from the Oklahoma City Thunder, Chet Holmgren. What's up, my man? What up, what up? Appreciate you having me. Appreciate you coming on. It's that time of year. It's that exciting time of year. And you guys are at the very top of the standings coming into this season. Could you have even imagined this level of success from your team? Personally, I don't like to come into things with huge expectations, good or bad, just because it can kind of distract you from where you are and where you're trying to get to. The mindset, not only for myself, but kind of us as a collective, as a team was, you know, come in with the attitude to work hard and get better knowing that we're a young team we have a long horizon we got a long way to go and kind of take the challenges and adversity and the success and just kind of just roll with it not let it kind of change the path that we're trying to go on but in training camp when you got this team together and obviously you watched from afar last year but you were in the gym and you were around the team throughout the season could Could you see that it was an evolution from last year, that there potentially was more success than maybe people on the outside were imagining you guys were going to have?

2:35Oh, yeah. I mean, I had the utmost confidence in the dudes we had in the gym. I was I was watching these guys hoop all summer, hooping with them, working out with them. And obviously you could see the talent was there the year before. But the hard work that they put in, as well as myself over the summer, you could kind of see the leaps that everybody was taking. And then once we got into the training camp and we kind of saw everything coming together, it was like, yeah, we got something special going on. There was a graphic that I saw on Instagram, and it was about the fact that you had missed every game last year.

3:10And at the time that I called you, you had not missed a single game this year. In the same vein, what was your expectation for yourself? Because this is also your rookie year and you're coming off an entire year of missing the game. what could you have imagined for yourself and have you blown past those expectations I mean I just knew I was going to come in with the utmost gratitude to play basketball Kev's probably told you like I'm in the gym every day you can rely on me to be there it's like pickups tomorrow at 10 I'm gonna be there you don't even got to be like where's Chet I'm there at 8 30 8 45 you know um and I just tried to bring that mindset into into the season like I want to play every game.

3:52I want to compete on every single possession. What I have learned is, you know, 82 games. It's a grind. It's a mother for sure. But I've just tried to keep that mindset and that gratitude. And it's really helped me to this point where it's like I might wake up sick one day or, you know, my ankle might hurt from being twisted in the last game. But it's like if I go out there, I feel like I can help our team win. You know, I'm gonna go out there and give it what I got. Were there points last year where, even though you knew what the prognosis was and you were sitting the year out, where you almost looked over at Coach or at Sam and, I want to get out there this year, or had you checked out and already knew that you had to go a whole season?

4:32There was a point where I was like, I can do more than I'm doing. I'm good. I feel great. I feel healthy. But we did a great job of sitting down early on and putting together a plan. and finding an understanding. And, um, you know, I kind of found the maturity to follow the plan and as, you know, frustrating as it, as it got for myself, as somebody, you know, I want to play. Um, but following the plan, knowing that it's bigger than me, um, you know, there's a whole organization of moving parts and, um, you know, not kind of jamming everything up by trying to, you know force my wants into into things but um you know I feel like the plan that we put together um has worked great up to this point and you know it's not over there's a long way to go for myself and the team and organization and uh you know we're going to continue to work on that you know when Kevin missed the year with an Achilles injury and and even more the uh almost full season that he missed when he was in Oklahoma he talked about how he questioned who he was without the game and he questioned if he was ever going to be the same player he was going to be but I would imagine that that's got to be a different emotion when you're 20 years old but getting drafted your dreams coming true and then all of a sudden you got to halt it and wait a whole year what did it do to you mentally having to sit out for a year man it was rough it wasn't you know it It wasn't all good days.

6:07It wasn't all bad days. But I definitely had a whole lot of different thoughts. It was like a roller coaster. Playing in a season is a roller coaster, not playing in a season is a roller coaster. I was so used to my whole life. I'd just wake up and play basketball. It had never been taken away from me for any period of time, really, and not having it. And then being told to go home and sit down because doing too much is not helping. So I really kind of had to come to an understanding of how much basketball is to my life. I got injured this year. I'm missing a season, but my career is still extremely long.

6:47If I do what I'm supposed to do, take care of my body the right way, I still got another 15-plus whatever years in this. I feel like I can play as long as I want. And so I never really had thoughts of, like, what am I going to do after basketball? It was like, how do I get back to doing basketball? But that didn't make it any easier because, you know, I'm still doing all my rehab, my workouts. And then it's like, I can't do that 24 hours a day. Now it's like, go home. I'm in a new city. You know, got to find stuff to do. You know, hopped on the game. I ended up getting a dog, which can be a handful of times, especially now that I'm back playing.

7:28But, you know, I got some good people around me helping out with all that stuff, helping take care of everything. But, you know, shout out to my dog for sure. I feel like every player gets a dog at one point in early on. It's like part of the process. I don't know what it is, but like almost everybody on our team has a dog. So it's like it might be like the being in a new city type thing. Maybe we're all just dog people. I don't know. But but it's great to have a dog around, you know, whether you score 40 or go two for 15, you go home and dogs jump in when you walk through the door. all the same way.

8:02So, you know, it can be comforting. And on top of that, I just like having fun with my dog. A lot of times players allude to the fact that, like, when they're away from the game, they found a way to get better and to see the game in a different way. A lot of times it's a player that had played for a long time and then had that moment where they had to get away from it. Did you feel like you even evolved your game somewhat or watched the game in a different way or got a feel for the speed of the NBA? I definitely do. I think the biggest thing for me was I had to take a whole year back from playing five-on-five.

8:42Because, like, when you're playing a game, it's like there's so many ways to impact winning that you have to focus on outside of just yourself with the basketball in your hands. And, like, when you're taking a year back from that, it's like all I can – I'm working out myself, you know, so it's like you get a whole year to kind of work on your skills. So, like, I was working on my ability to shoot, to handle, to, like, my big thing, I think, was kind of playing in the mid-range and attacking with the ball in my hands, and then being able to watch all that shit up close from Shea. I watched, like, 80 games of Shea doing that, and then all the other dudes that we're playing against who mastered it, you know, and being able to take things from them, I feel like it's huge, but I don't think it equated to playing 82 games, because it's like, when you play the games, you can take that film, go back and watch it and be like, this is what I got to work on, I didn't know what I had to work on, I was just working on, it's like, I saw this move, I liked it, I tried to add it to my game, you know, not knowing, there was no trial and error, I was just, it was all like trial you know like I'm just out there working out um just really trying to keep the joy of it you know that's that's one thing when you're working out I love that part I don't know not everybody probably loves just working out but I love just working out um on top of playing too do you see your game improving throughout this season oh yeah 100 % like I see there's stuff that I was doing in game one that was working that I don't even do today because like it works in game one people aren't just going to let you keep doing it so it's like now they scouted it they know you know he's going to drive he's going to spin he's going to sweep up through the arms try and draw a foul so it's like I can't do that anymore because you know now that backside defender he's spinning they're trapping the turn they're coming to get the ball so it's like can't do that no more what's the counter to that okay half spin you know what I mean come back so it's like just trying to it's like a game of cat and mouse there's some things that like like I'm sure Kev knows uh it tells you all the time there's there's some things defense just can't do anything about you put a smaller guy on somebody bigger you know they can shoot over the top it doesn't matter how much you scout that uh it's gonna work so trying to figure out different things that you know i can get to no matter what and then also kind of play that cat and mouse game of this is what the this is what on the scouting report so this is what i got to do to kind of kind of counter that the thing about your team is i think people have fallen in love with you know the okc mob and and the way you guys after games surround each other during the post-game interview.

11:22Barking, revving each other up, and you can see that this team really loves each other and that you guys are really all one. Is it as good as it seems? Is the chemistry amongst you guys something like you've never experienced before? Everything I've been told is like we're definitely unique in NBA. NBA teams aren't like this because it's like a hierarchy. You got the vet dudes with, you know, mass contracts under their belt, this ego and that ego. And then you got dudes on two ways who are trying to just make it in the league. And it's like it's hard for them to interact and really kind of have the same understanding on the same level.

12:01But like we're all so young. We're all so fresh in the league. And on top of that, we got dudes who are so humble and bought in and everybody's about each other. and you know when you have a locker room like that it kind of permeates you know and I feel like that's what we have which is which is great credit to Sam for putting the right guys in the locker room too that's not possible without the right guys it doesn't just kind of kind of happen without that we also live in like a hater culture I don't I don't get it but people call it corny when we support each other which I don't get and we don't really care we're gonna keep doing it so I love it, man.

12:39And, you know, this I'm not forcing this when I say this, but the last time I ever saw a team that gave off that feel where people rallied around them, where the fact that they were so young was what made them special was guess what team? 2012 OKC Thunder. Yeah. Is that team a presence in OKC? Does that shadow at all exist? Do you guys look at that era or or don't look at that era? I definitely feel like with the people who are old enough in the Thunder fan base to have been through that era and been fans of that era has stuck to them. They haven't like forgotten about it, which is hard to do because, you know, they did some great things.

13:24But like what we're doing now, what we're trying to do, I feel like is definitely bringing back like a nostalgic effect on that kind of group of the fan base where it's like we missed this. This is what the Thunder really is about. So we're just trying to bring that back. You know, there's a winning culture in the city, and they did it first. They kind of paved the way, set the standard, and we're trying to uphold that. Is there somebody in your mind, you know, I look at that time, James coming off the bench, then went on to be one of the most, like, you know, incredible scorers of any generation.

13:58Yeah. Is there a player in your team you think in some ways has compromised for the team? I don't think there's a single person on the team who is more about them than trying to win. Everybody's bought in. Obviously, everybody has a different role. Everybody has different skill sets, abilities. You know, credit to coach and the staff for kind of meshing them all together and trying to come up with like the perfect combination. I still don't think we're there. We still have so much to work on as individuals, as a team and figure so many things out. and we still haven't run into all the challenges we need to run into to figure those things out.

14:36Teams are like just now starting to throw different looks at us, coverages, because, you know, when you're not a good team, teams just throw the base coverage at you. It's like, well, this is what we do every night and we're still good enough to beat you doing it. Once a team doesn't think they can beat you doing what they normally do, they're going to throw different things at you to try and throw you off your rhythm. And we're just now seeing all that stuff. And we're like trying to adjust and learn as a team, as a coaching staff, like Mark, you know, we got a young coaching staff, too. We're all figuring this thing out.

15:09And, you know, I think the fact that we're all bought into doing it together is going to like help accelerate it for us. So I know you won't do this. I'll do this for you. If I was looking at the rookie of the year, I would say that the one thing that has to be taken into account is that, like you said, everyone's compromised their game a bit. you've had to be a leader. Everyone's had to be a leader because there's no real OG, and you guys have a real opportunity to win a championship. And that has to play into the rookie of the year thinking, right? Obviously, Wembeyama has put up staggering numbers, has done staggering things.

15:43The story has been as loud as any story could be. Does that motivate you? Do you worry about the rookie of the year? I know your answer will be no, but do you feel like you should be the rookie of the year? um i feel like that's a loaded question because yeah it's definitely a loaded question um i mean first of all credit to to when being what he's doing um you know having the argument of you know winning versus not winning versus sacrificing for the team versus having more opportunity versus having what some might think higher level players on the team versus not. That doesn't discredit what he's doing.

16:31None of it should discredit what I'm doing. I think, first of all, we're both having great years.

16:39But at the end of the day, I think the voting is in the eye of the beholder. The input from our seasons is going to be what they judge it on, and that's what it's going to be at the end of the day. whenever that does happen, you know, win, lose, draw, whatever, like the focus at the end of the day is still going to be on our season, hopefully continuing on and, you know, what I got to do to help our team, you know, continue with where they're trying to go. Magic and Bird, Jordan and Magic, LeBron and KD, these matchups mean something to the game. Obviously, you know, Wemby's had an incredible year.

17:15Like we said, you've had an incredible year. But do you get up for those matchups? Do you start seeing a future in which some of these matchups will be fun and will be competitive and will challenge you for the rest of your career? I mean, they have been so far, and I'm sure that's going to continue on, not just between me and him, but, like, other good players in the league. This is the NBA. It's high-level basketball every night, and you've got to come prepared. You're going through the motions one night, you're bullshitting, and you're going to get embarrassed. So it's like you've got to show up and be ready to, you know, kind of put on a show, if that makes sense.

17:48I'm going to read you some numbers that will be staggering to you. You were 13 months old when LeBron was drafted. Yeah. You were 7 when LeBron won MVP. You were 10 years old when OKC went to the finals. And 13 years old when Steph won his first championship. How crazy is it for you growing up watching these guys and playing against them on a nightly basis now? I mean, I think about it all the time. It's crazy. Like, I started watching, my first year watching NBA basketball was, like, LeBron versus Dirk in the finals. And then the next year, it's Bron KD in the finals. And that's kind of what really got me into basketball.

18:30Now these dudes are, like, my matchups on, you know, Tuesday afternoons in the middle of December. Like, it's one of those things that kind of brings even more joy into the game for me. Now being able to compete against those dudes is what it's all about. You know, I have fun every time I go up against these dudes. And, you know, you really got to cherish that because you don't know how much longer they'll be playing or how much longer you could even be playing. You know, I don't take it for granted, but I definitely hope it's a long time. LeBron may play longer than everybody. He might play until there's no more NBA.

19:10Who knows? Who'd you root for in the Heat Thunder Championship in 2012? Me and all my teammates and stuff, we were all on the Thunder bandwagon just because, like, they were young. We were young. They were the new hot thing, you know. So we were following them definitely on the bandwagon with that one. Who did you model your game after or who did you watch growing up that you thought, like, okay this is somebody if I keep my eye on them this could probably help my game at some point in my career yeah like I was a hoops junkie growing up once I really got into watching basketball so I'd like be on YouTube watching all the highlights be watching games and stuff and it wasn't I wasn't watching like just one person it was more of like a like an archetype I guess like the taller skill guys from like Dirk to Kev to T-Mac, like these dudes who had the size, but they weren't in the NBA because they were tall.

20:11You know, they were in the NBA because of what they could do with the pill and, you know, watching them. And then I go to the park and try and do all the same shit and over time kind of develop like the same tall skill archetype. But, you know, I got a long ways to go. I got a lot more I want to add. I saw you were like you shot up to 6 '9 in the ninth grade or something, right? So in eighth grade, I went from 6 '2 to 6 '8 by the end of the year, school year. But your generation, they didn't say you're the center or go play down on the block. Or did you have to fight that a bit? There's two sides to that.

20:51So, like, when I started playing basketball, I ended up getting in with the right coaches, right people knew what they were doing and they saw the direction basketball was going where it's like everybody's got to be able to do things with the ball in their hand make decisions handle shoot skill like if you can play defense and you can shoot the ball you can be on pretty much any court those are two things that are universally needed so like that's where you start and then you build out from there it's like don't box somebody in and like they're looking at me they're like he's not going to be Shaq so like we're not going to predicate his game on going and being bigger and dunking on everybody so uh you know definitely had to rely a lot on skill at times being as tall as I am uh definitely has physical advantages like blocking shots rim protection and stuff so you definitely have to kind of fight that balance um between playing more guardish on offense, playing more biggish on defense, you know, like usually wherever you are on one side of the ball, that's where you get put on the other side of the ball.

21:55So it's like kind of weird, a weird dynamic that I've had to carve out for myself. And you talked about like, you're not Shaq, right? So the game has evolved. You grew up in an evolved game. And now there's very few past first point guards. Like you don't have many traditional big men. where do you see when players like you and Victor and and even the way Luca is controlling the game where do you see the game evolving like what changes could you imagine happening five ten years in the league man uh I think the limit is just dependent on what type of athletes are born into the world I mean if there's 450 Giannis's born in the world, there's going to be 450 Giannis's in the NBA.

22:43I mean, because there's going to be a peak to where the skill can grow to. And the rest of it is just going to depend on what type of body is, you know, bringing that skill out. And we see it now, bigger guys handling from Luca 6 '9", obviously Wynneby's huge, I'm 7-something in my own right, Kev, 7 feet. You know, all these guys, like I said, Giannis, Embiid, Jokic, like, it's just like an involvement of skill, but once that peaks out, it's going to just depend on, you know, what type of athletes can develop that skill. I know for Kevin, and I think about this a lot with guys that are built like you and Victor and Kevin.

23:31So a lot of times people want to harp on, he's got to put more muscle on, he's got to put more weight on his body. And, you know, look at Kevin now in year 17. I mean, he's bigger, he's a grown man, but he never put, he never turned into that guy. I mean, his game was predicated on how he's built. Do you feel like that's the same for you? Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, there's a balance between, again, your skill and your physical ability. If your physical ability is taking away from your skill, Like, like your first step is this and now you put on a bunch of weight and you don't got that first step anymore or you can't move.

24:01You can't slide your feet. You can't jump quick. You know, there's a point where just like getting big is going to going to hurt you, especially for a slender guy like myself. Like, yeah, sure. I could go and get massive shoulders and stuff. But like, what's it really going to do for me? It's going to make me not jump as quick. It's going to make me not move as quick. And those are some of my advantages, being able to be rangy on the court and move my feet, stay in front of guys, meet guys up top. If I sacrifice that for some mass, is it really worth it? So I think the more important thing is just getting stronger, especially when you're a young player in the NBA.

24:36Everybody's got to get stronger. And like you said, Kev's a grown man now, different than when he came into the NBA. It's going to be a similar situation for any rookie coming into the league. you know got to get stronger but not necessarily sacrifice what you have going for what might or might not work yeah for who you are yeah so we talked about the idea of like growing up in an era where you're watching LeBron Kevin and Step those ages were staggering to think about the idea that you were 13 months old when LeBron was drafted and now you're playing in the league with him but you also grew up in an era different than those guys where not only were you watching their success on court, but you saw what they were doing off court.

25:16And so much so that you grew up probably only seeing that these guys, when they reached that level, also build these enterprises for themselves. Growing up, was that something you also had as part of the dream? The dream is, I want to make it in the league. I want a signature shoe. But did you feel like this generation is coming into the NBA now thinking, all right, I'm also trying to keep my eye on what I can build for myself and what I can create. Yeah, a hundred percent. I think everything that they've been doing, uh, is just kind of opening up and understanding for everybody of what's possible.

25:55Um, and like, if I didn't even, if I didn't think that was an option, I wouldn't be like looking into it, like paying attention, following along. I think like the media space that we have now where there's access to so much and knowledge and you can follow this person and what they're doing so much easier i think that's been huge too because it's like if we were in the 80s or 90s i'm only seeing the game on tv or the game that got recorded on the dvr i don't even know what that is anymore dvr yes it's something something uh but like i wouldn't be able to follow what so-and-so is doing off the court because like there's no access to you know unless some beat writers write in an article about it um but then again that's not the same like I grew up, I'm seeing on social media and everything what LeBron's doing, what Uninterrupted, and what you and Kevin have been doing with Boardroom, and watching what you guys are doing, how you're doing it, and how it's impacting people.

26:54And that kind of opened up an understanding for me. Early on, I wanted to learn about the business side of things too. And I feel like I was in the perfect timing. And like my first year in college, my only year in college was the first year of NIL. So like I got a jump start into the whole business world of how things worked before I even got to the NBA. And, you know, now it's just like understanding how much power we have as as players and brands. I'd be silly not to look into that and and want to make something of that. But I also understand at the same time, like none of that means if I don't handle my basketball business on this end.

27:33And so, you know, I know what comes first, but I also know that there's kind of more to it to explore. And, you know, you're in the best organization for that because I think, you know, A, Sam had experience with one group of young guys, and you see the way all of you guys are together. And in a lot of ways, all of you guys are not just encountering on the court at the same time. You're encountering off the court, you know, yourself and Shea and J-Dub. These are the same type of opportunities and experiences. is there sharing of that in the locker room a bit? Do you guys talk? I know two of you guys did a spot together, but is that part of the combo in the locker room?

28:10Yeah, to an extent.

28:15Obviously, business ventures can be, you know, personal or individual at times. And, you know, there's definitely a fine line between, you know, sharing that and flaunting that. And, you know, nobody wants to come off the wrong way. But like we'll sit down and talk about things that we're doing and we'll be like, oh, that's dope. I didn't even think to do something like that. You know, I want to get in on something like that. You know, it kind of goes to show like, you know, we truly do have a caring for each other. And, you know, everybody's trying to look out. You guys can get in the gym in the summer, share ideas for how to work on your game on court, but share ideas on how to work together off the court.