OKC Thunder Star Looks to Joel Embiid for Motivation

Joel Embiid helped motivate Oklahoma City's top draft pick this offseason.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are currently developing their own “Process” related to what the Philadelphia 76ers did during the Sam Hinkie era.

As the Thunder continue to stockpile draft picks and use them on high-end talent when the draft rolls around, the Thunder have acquired some future stars over the years through the draft.

OKC picked up one of the NCAA’s top prospects Chet Holmgren with the second-overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft. Coming out of Minnesota, Holmgren entered the college scene as a five-star prospect and was widely considered the No. 1 player in the nation.

Holmgren took his talent to Gonzaga, where he starred for 32 games, averaging 14 points, three blocks, nine rebounds, and one assist while draining 39 percent of his threes.

The Thunder hoped that Holmgren could come to Oklahoma City and contribute immediately, but the rookie big man will have to take a year off after suffering an injury during the offseason.

In a summertime Pro-AM game, Holmgren made headlines for making a fearless defensive play on Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James. While Holmgren was praised for making the play, praise quickly turned to concern as the second pick was seen limping right away.

Unfortunately, Holmgren was diagnosed with a Linsfranc injury, which will cause him to miss the entire 2021-2022 season. Similar to Sixers center Joel Embiid, Holmgren’s NBA career is on hold before it even starts.

Embiid isn’t the only star prospect to miss his rookie season due to a lower-body injury, but he’s one of the best examples for young players such as Holmgren to look at. Although it took a while for Embiid to hit his stride due to setbacks, the star big man is now a five-time All-Star and a two-time MVP runner-up.

Therefore, Holmgren reached out to the big man and his trainer for advice on how to move forward, according to Rookie Wire's Cody Taylor.

“It was definitely something I really had to put my mind to and spend some time to think on and kind of come to some conclusions on things and really settle my mind so I could really stop focusing on what happened and focus on what’s going to happen and what I gotta do to get where I need to be.”

It is always good to be able to look at something and be able to know it has been done before; it’s not this impossible feat. Even if it was, I was going to put my hard hat on and get to work. I spoke briefly to Joel on what his experience was like and talked to one of his trainers a little bit on it and got some good words of advice.”

Injuries have always been a part of basketball, and that will be the case as long as the game is around. While Embiid continues to battle injuries throughout his career, he hasn’t let the setbacks affect his approach to the game.

Before he ever debuted with the Sixers, many questioned whether Embiid could shake a bust label or not after getting selected third-overall. Following his sixth NBA season, Embiid collected his fifth All-Star nod and was crowned the NBA’s scoring champion.

Holmgren has a long way to go before he follows in Embiid’s footsteps, but if he traces the blueprint, he could have a successful career in his future despite hitting a road bump early in the game. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.