Victor Wembanyama Chet Holmgren Rivalry, San Antonio Spurs Oklahoma City Thunder rivalry, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Wemby Chet rivalry
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Victor Wembanayama has helped lead the San Antonio Spurs to three straight wins over his rival Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Whether artificially manufactured or based ontrue dislike for each other, it is impossible to deny there has been a rivalry between Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs and Chet Holmgren of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The two began their careers in the same season, aresemi-similar players with the same tall, skinny build, and each has some of thebiggest potentialas it relates toyoung players on the rise in the NBA today.
While many believe Wembanyama is well on his way to becoming one of the greatest players in league history, the rivalry has tended to leantowards him.However, speaking on Run It Back on FanDuel TV, former NBA star Lou Williams thinks everyone is making the wrong comparison,as itrelates to Wembanyama vs. Holmgren.
“There’s levels to this conversation.The real rivalry isgonna be SGA and Wemby. Those are the MVP candidates,”Williams said. “Why would an MVP candidate have a rivalry with a guywho’s not in that conversation?”
Williams claimed that with thestarpower between Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, they should bethe two compared, rather than the French star and Holmgren. The conversation around the rivalry has heated up after the Spurshave beaten the Thunder three times in 12 days,one of which came in the NBA Cup semifinals,and anothercoming on Christmas Day.
The Victor Wembanyama Chet Holmgren Rivalry
Just comparing the numbers between the two lanky big men when their teams have matched up against each other, Wembanyama has the distinct advantage. The Spurs have more wins, while the7’5”center has the upper hand in every singlemajor counting statistic, according to LandofBasketball.com.
Holmgren does have a title and an immense amount of playoff success, but as many have mentioned,he’s never been the best player on the Thunder through his first two and a half seasons in the league. That’s whereWilliams’ opinion comes in, as he believes the more apt comparison is between the best players on each team,in the form of Wembanyama and Gilgeous-Alexander.
“I think Wemby has graduated from that conversation of a rivalry with Chet,”Williams said. “It was a rivalry based on who was going to be Rookie of the Year… Idon’t think this is even a thing. Idon’t think this is even sexy enough for usto even continue to even talk about.”
Chandler Parsons, former NBA player andWilliams’ co-host, added that he agrees with the three-time Sixth Man of theYear’s conclusion.
“If this is going to be a rivalry, Chet needs to start having some big-time games andOKC’s gotta win some of these games,”he said.
Wembanyama himself commented on his rivalry with Holmgren when asked by a French reporter after theSpurs’ Christmas Day win over the Thunder.
Maxime Aubin
I asked Victor Wembanyama (in French) whether he considers there to be any rivalry between him and Chet Holmgren, and he was pretty clear:
“No, I don’t think about that. At least from a basketball standpoint, there’s no comparison (between us)”.
“No, Idon’t think about that,”he said on his thoughts about a rivalry with Holmgren. “At least from a basketball standpoint,there’s no comparison [between us].”
Oklahoma City Thunder Have A San Antonio Spurs Problem
Along with believing that Wembanyama truly matches up against Gilgeous-Alexander, and that should be considered his true rival, Williams and Parsons spoke about the matchup nightmare the French 21-year-old gives Oklahoma City.
Despitethe fact that Wembanyamawas returning froman injury, playing an average of just over 20 minutes in their three games against each other, he proved again to be one of the most impactful players in the league, even against theThunder’s top-rated, suffocating defense.
“I think this is a matchupthat’s going to [continue to be] problematic for OKC,”Williams said. “With San Antonio, and a7’5”Wemby, that creates a big problem for OKC moving forward.”
Williams addedthat despite the three recent wins for the Spurs, thatdoesn’t guaranteethey’d winin a seven-game playoff series against the defending champions. But still, the performances seen by Wembanyama over his supposed rival are impossible to ignore.
“I still feel likeit’s OKC by a large margin,”he added. “But that creates challenges… the Spurs are doing a great job of putting themselves in that conversation.”
So far this season, the Thunder have five losses, three of which came at the hands of Wembanyama in the Spurs this month alone. Regardless of who people claim the Frenchcenter’s true rival is, it is hard to deny the growing contention between the two franchises, which share some of the best young talent in the NBA todayin the form of Wembanayama, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Holmgren.