Thunder’s Chet Holmgren comes home to Minnesota, the place he learned to be himself

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MINNEAPOLIS — The court still exists. Here at Powderhorn Park, a leafy area smack dab in the middle of the city, is where Dave Holmgren was introduced to the game.

Dave grew up a few blocks away in the 1970s. The sounds — sneakers skidding across the pavement, balls clanking off rims, barbs being traded back and forth — eventually reeled him in. The other little boys allowed him to play. He relished the competition and needed the camaraderie. The environment became his oasis.

“He was the only White kid there,” said Joe Fuller, one of Dave’s high school teammates. “But nobody cared.”

The comfort Dave derived from these grounds developed a love for the game. He could shoot. Sprouting up to 7 feet gave him a distinct advantage on defense. His skills spurred big dreams, but those eventually ended in college. Fortunately, the seeds were transferred to his son. You might know him. His name is Chet.

And this weekend, he’s coming home.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will enter the belly of the beast at Target Center on Saturday night for Game 3 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. For the team, this is a chance to creep one step closer to the elusive Larry O’Brien trophy. For Chet Holmgren, it’s an opportunity to appreciate the journey.

Chet’s career carries forward his father’s experiences. It’s not just those midday runs at Powderhorn Park when Dave was a teen. It’s also Dave’s path entirely.

Lessons emerge like Easter eggs in newspaper articles written in the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 1982. Dave was conscious about his size. In one particular anecdote in the paper, Dave’s father and Chet’s grandfather, Chester, recalled a Sunday morning when Dave was a child.

“He was crying,” Chester said. “He said, ‘I don’t want to go to Sunday school. The kids call me names like daddy long legs and skinny.’”

Chester replied with stories. He, too, was tall, and in the army, many of his counterparts tossed smart comments his way.

“Then I had him stand next to me and said, ‘Son, you’re already a half-inch taller than me,’” Chester said. “He smiled and put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Well, shorty, what should we do next?’”

Photo of Dave Holmgren story in Star Tribune from Feb. 1982

Dave also dealt with what happens when your world becomes consumed by adults with different motives. Central High School shuttered before his senior year, so he transferred from the city to the suburbs and attended Prior Lake High School. Educators, hearing boards, parents and even courts objected to the move. The hoopla jeopardized his senior season. 

Once the decision-makers cleared him, he starred, earning a collegiate opportunity at Minnesota. Knee tendinitis limited his playing time and cut his lofty hopes short. Dave filed this away. When other students bullied his son, when adults interfered with what was best for him, and his son navigated growing pains, he could provide a singular perspective.

Corey Evans, a longtime prospect evaluator and former scout for the Thunder, first spotted Chet at an AAU tournament in Cartersville, Ga. He initially squinted. It was as if altering his vision in the most minor way would clarify what he was looking at. He assumed Holmgren, a freshman, was a senior based upon sheer size.

“I was trying to decipher what he was,” he said. “Like, it was weird, man.”

He ping-ponged around the gym, asking questions and learning some of the backstory. Larry Suggs, the father of former Gonzaga star and current Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs, received a call about the kid when Chet was in third grade. Suggs invited Chet to a workout. Chet’s skill level did not compare to Jalen’s or any of the other players, but even at 9 years old, he seemed intrigued by the idea that another skill level existed.

Suggs invited Chet back for practice. Before long, Suggs positioned Chet at the top of the key and asked him to practice as if he were the point guard. Why limit a kid to one area of the floor? With time and little pressure, why not push the limits on how far development could take him? From afar, Dave and Chet’s mother, Sarah, appreciated the trial and error of it all.

At the very least, they knew Chet’s partaking would expose him to boys his age growing up with different circumstances than him.

Alec Lewis / The Athletic

Chet’s hunger for growth convinced Suggs that he was not ordinary. This was long before the six-inch growth spurt in eighth grade that coincided with searing pain. Dave orchestrated physical therapy sessions he didn’t have. Chet missed the game and played with the fervor to prove it by the time Evans was first exposed.

“Most of the time, a goofy-looking White kid from Minnesota, you’re, like, man…” Evans said. “But what makes him special is his innate confidence and his belief in himself.”

Evans monitored the rest of Chet’s high school arc. Coaches praised his commitment to winning alongside Jalen Suggs at Minnehaha Academy. Scoring was never a priority. He blocked shots like a missile-defense system. His ability to estimate trajectory and use both hands made little sense.

There was also this: In 2017, with Chet still an underclassman, a natural gas explosion at Minnehaha Academy forced the school to hold classes further from Chet’s house.

He awoke earlier each day for nearly two years, hopped on a city bus and rode to a nearby Burger King. There, Lance Johnson, Chet’s high school coach, scooped him up and drove him the rest of the way.

Last week, Larry McKenzie, a longtime high school coach in Minneapolis, received a call from his 87-year-old mother. She’s an avid NBA fan. She asked her son what his feelings were about the Timberwolves playing against the Thunder.

More specifically, she sought his opinions on Chet.

“I told her and I tell everybody, ‘He cost me two state titles,’” McKenzie said.

Another Minneapolis high school coach, Travis Bledsoe, said he shakes his head each time he sees the AT&T commercial featuring Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Holmgren. Wearing the same goofy-looking blue coat, Chet pops his collar.

“Every time I see him on (that commercial), my first thought is: ‘Man, I lost the state championship because of him,’” Bledsoe said.

However, neither is rooting against him because they know the resolve he has. McKenzie assigned a future Auburn football player to him to displace him from the paint. It didn’t work. Bledsoe told his players they needed to jab him in the body as many times as possible. Chet absorbed the contact without a peep. During one particular timeout in one of the state championship games, one of McKenzie’s players yelled at him: “He’s 13 feet! What do you want me to do?”

“A lot of people always say, ‘He’s too skinny! His legs are too skinny!’” Bledsoe said. “But he was tough, man. You could not intimidate him. You couldn’t punk him.”

According to Evans, these impressions explain why Thunder general manager Sam Presti and assistant general manager Rob Hennigan were as convinced as they were when presented with the chance to draft Chet at No. 2 in the 2022 NBA Draft. Chet’s recovery from the Lisfranc injury that cost him his rookie season and, more recently, a pelvic fracture that sidelined him for 39 games this campaign, has only validated his fortitude. The best way to summarize Chet’s impact is this statistic: Holmgren ranked first in field goal percentage allowed out of 148 players who defended at least 200 layup and dunk attempts this season.

Gilgeous-Alexander commended Chet this week for the seamlessness with which Chet has reintegrated himself after his injury. But this is simply who Chet is; this is who Dave was raised to be.

That Burger King he used to get picked up at? Chet would sit in the restaurant during the winter and connect with the employees. In short order, they slid him free food.

When presented with this history this week, a manager at the establishment smiles. He doesn’t follow basketball, but he wishes he had worked here a few years ago.

“I hadn’t heard about him before now,” he said. “But knowing that he’s playing in this big game Saturday night, maybe I’ll even watch.”

(Top photo: Joshua Gateley/Getty Images)

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