'That Was Unacceptable!' OKC Thunder Rookie Chet Holmgren Uses Debut as Fuel for 7-Block Outing
For a long-awaited debut of a 7-foot center, zero blocks and four rebounds doesn't sound too enamoring.
Oklahoma City Thunder's rookie Chet Holmgren was the man behind that statline during his first outing against the Chicago Bulls, but despite the low numbers on height-based statistics, he played well. Holmgren notched 11 points on 57 percent shooting and put up an impressive +14 BPM (box plus/minus) when he was on the floor.
Still, the rookie wasn't satisfied. Not at all.
“First game, I had zero blocks and four rebounds," Holmgren said. "I thought that was unlike myself. I hold myself to a standard, and I felt like that was unacceptable.”
So, with a game under his belt — and a win, at that — Holmgren set out to prove himself. He was going to be aggressive on defense, keep things rolling on offense and show out against Cleveland. He was going to play up to his standard.
Safe to say, he did that and more. Not 48 hours later, Holmgren not only helped the Thunder to its second straight road win of the season, but he made history in the process. The 7-foot-1 center now owns Oklahoma City's rookie record for blocks in a single game, with seven.
Suddenly, his was the most enamoring statline perhaps in the entire league Friday night. But still, he wasn't satisfied. He thought he should have more.
"NBA, please go watch the tape and give me the correct [number] of blocks," Holmgren said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter almost immediately following the Thunder's 108-105 victory over Cleveland. "I [don't care] about stats, but I worked hard [as f***] for those. Good [win], Thunder up lol."
Holmgren's post went viral for its brutally honest nature, but his on-court interview was certainly more telling of his mindset moving forward.
"I'm still new to the job," Holmgren said. "But, man, this feels great. There's a lot of work to be done, and our whole team knows that, but down the stretch we really stuck together. That's how we came out with this [win]."
Holmgren's seven blocks paired nicely with his 16 points, 13 rebounds and 55 percent shooting clip against the Cavaliers, as the rookie was responsible for both creating defensive havoc and keeping the Thunder in the game down the stretch on offense.
He's found his groove, which it is now abundantly clear can be a big difference maker on both ends of the court. So, as Holmgren looks to continue to find success on the court, he'll remind himself of his own standard.
But also the standard of his teammates.
"It just comes down to trusting each other," Holmgren said. "We did a great job of that down the stretch, we've just got to continue that throughout the season. We had moments where we could get better, but all teams have that. It's early in the season, so we're going to get in film room, practice and work the kinks out."
Oklahoma City is back in action Sunday afternoon against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in what could be a must-see battle of the bigs at Paycom Center. There, the Thunder will look to keep its perfect record intact and grab its first home victory.
Tipoff is set for 2:30 p.m.
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