Former Dayton star Holmes making progress in recovery from Achilles injury

“When it first happened, I thought I just hurt my calf,” Holmes said on the podcast, which aired live on YouTube.com, “and I was ready to go back in. I was walking on it. I thought I was good. But the trainer, when he said, ‘It’s your Achilles,’ I didn’t even question it. They do that for their job. I’m not going to tell him he’s wrong.”

Holmes underwent surgery three days later and had a message for everyone before the surgery.

“I’ll be back and better soon!” he wrote on X (Twitter).

Holmes is now more than two months into the rehabilitation process in Denver. He’s riding a stationary bike and doing upper body strength training. He has even started shooting.

At some point in the 2024-25 season, Holmes expects to be able to practice with the Nuggets, who start training camp this weekend, but he won’t play in games. He’s looking at his rookie season as a redshirt season.

Holmes said his goal throughout the season will be to continue to learn. He wants to memorize plays and gain an understanding of his teammates and coaches.

“It’s going to be pretty cool,” Holmes said. “You get to see things from a different perspective. You get to learn from a different perspective.”

Holmes has continued to participate in team activities. He posed for photos with his teammates after they ran the steep steps at the Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre south of Denver. He appeared at the Gold Crown Foundation Healthy Kids Expo in August with teammate Christian Braun. The Nuggets filmed him throwing a football at an outdoor workout earlier in the summer and teased him about his form when they shared the video on social media.

Holmes has felt the love from the organization since the injury.

“Even when we’re in practice and I’m walking around the gym and I’m doing my exercises,” he said, “teammates and coaches will still check in. It’s not like they just leave me be.”

Holmes has stayed positive since the first moments he knew the severity of the injury. His Dayton teams saw the same attitude shine through the group text.

“He sounded in good spirits,” Dayton redshirt freshman forward Jaiun Simon said in July. “DaRon is DaRon. He’s always happy.”

Holmes said his agent was mad at him because he was laughing about the injury, but that was his way of dealing with it.

“It kind of sucks,” Holmes said, “but it’s like, ‘What’s next? Let’s just build. We’ve got to start a new chapter. Let’s go.’ Coach (Brenadon) Malone came up to me and (General Manager) Calvin (Booth) and the team came up to me, and they all said, ‘We’re here with you. We’re going to guide you along the way. We’re going to help you get through this. You’re not in this by yourself.’ And that was great to hear.”

The injury happened days after Holmes signed his rookie contract with the Nuggets. According to Spotrac.com, it’s worth $15,203,658 with $6,284,400 guaranteed. He signed the contract two weeks after the Nuggets selected Holmes with the No. 22 pick in the NBA Draft.

Holmes wants to add his name to the list of NBA players who haver overcome Achilles injuries.

“If you do look at it, especially with technology and the way the trainers are nowadays, you can get back faster,” Holmes said. “It’s not the career-ending injury it was before. Some players come back even better because they are training in a certain way and they’re more focused on certain things. The way we look at it is you’re going to be okay. It’s just going to take time.”