The Slim Reaper
We've got our first Chet Holmgren Summer League highlights, and they're ridiculous
This might be a "me" problem, rather than a universal truth, but I'm going to say it anyway: there's something a little annoying about Gonzaga basketball. Sure, what Mark Few and his predecessors created in an unlikely spot is impressive, and sure, their success is pretty insane all things considered, but everything gets annoying with repetition, and seeing the exact same kind of player do the exact same kind of thing over and over for like three decades? Antipathy grows, and it only makes it worse that they're ranked in the top three constantly and come into the tourney with some insane record like 34-1 but haven't actually won a title.
Point is, it was hard for me to appreciate Chet Holmgren as a Zag. Which was probably dumb, because he's one of those insane people who grew up at a relatively normal size, got to be a really talented guard, and then went from 6'2" to 7'1" overnight, but kept his guard skills. This is someone who, as a high schooler, did this to Steph Curry:
He's absurd. Then he went to Gonzaga, and he fell into that old Gonzaga abyss, especially after Gonzaga did Gonzaga things by getting a 1-seed and losing in the Sweet 16.
Now, though? He's free, he was drafted second overall by the Thunder, and at last we have our first Summer League highlights. They are, in a word, stunning:
He's hitting threes! He's stuffing fools left and right, including Tacko $#*%ing Fall, who is somehow five inches taller than him! He's throwing no-look passes!
This move right here is patently absurd to see executed by a man over seven feet tall:
Remember when Rick Barnes couldn't make the Sweet 16 with Kevin Durant? I think right now we're all thinking what Rob Perez was thinking:
Check this out, though—when someone went after Drew Timme in support of Holmgren, he came back firing to support his former teammate:
Along with his unicorn basketball skills, the man has character! In the end, he finished his Summer League debut with 23 points on 7/9 shooting, with seven boards, six blocks, and four assists in TWENTY-THREE MINUTES. My prediction is that he's going to be the next NBA player to get a 5x5 (at least five of every major stat), and maybe, maybe, he becomes the first ever to put up a quintuple-double.
In short, the Chet Holmgren era is here, it's going to be awesome, and if you can stomach one more video, you have to see the absolutely un-guardable fadeaway he dropped last night. Jordan-esque: