Chet Holmgren Pushes James Harden After Throwing Self Alley-Oop Off the Backboard in Potential Rookie of the Year Defining Moment

Coming in to this NBA season all the talk was about how Victor Wembanyama was going to revolutionize the game. Chet Holmgren who is only about 2 inches shorter in some ways became the backstory. Then the season started, and now he’s coming into his own and appears to better than Wembanyama at almost everything besides rebounding.

Did this Self Alley-Oop Dunk Just Win Chet Holmgren Rookie of The Year?

Chet Holmgren has had a multiple legendary games this season. He already has a game winning shot, and a game where he had at least 7 blocks on his resume. Now he can also add doing an All Star dunk mid game to the list of his accolades.

Holmgren is a unique combination of height, length, and agility. This allows him to move around the court like a tall guard, rather than a center, while still being able to be shot blocker on defense.

Despite the natural advantages he has, the most dangerous aspect of his game might be his high IQ at such a young age. He has shown many times this year that he understands the intricacies of how to get open shots despite being played physically on defense.

Taking that slow last step when driving to the basket, so the defender’s momentum carries them away from the rim before attempting the layup. He’s already doing things like that, similar to Luka Doncic.

His most high IQ play yet came during Thunder’s latest game against the surging Clippers, who were without Kawhi Leonard. In the third quarter Chet Holmgren was being guarded by Ivica Zubac, who is known as one of the better defensive centers in the league.

Chet Holmgren threw a self alley-oop off the backboard after getting Zubac to bite on a pump fake near the free throw line. He didn’t even need to jump that high, because of his long arms. He gave the crowd an epic war cry, and beat his chest after the potential Rooke of the Year defining moment.

If you watch closely, you might notice that it appears Chet Holmgren pushed James Harden while celebrating his self alley-oop. At the very least they definitely shoulder checked each with other with a slight bump.

Holmgren was looking like a 7ft 2in Kobe Bryant throwing the ball off the backboard like that. Will he have a self alley-oop compilation of his own one day?

Surely there will be people out there that will say a self-alley oop is not impressive when you’re 7ft 2in with a 7ft 6in wingspan. However, his height is actually what makes it impressive, because it requires a ton of skill, mobility, and dexterity to pull off during in game action.

Wembanyama has more potential in theory, and his inefficient shot selection could be a product of being on a very bad team in the Spurs. Still yet it seems right now Chet Holmgren is the much more complete player offensively, and he’s also impacting the direction of his team more. He’s out there throwing alley-oops as a rookie.