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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 on true 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, are semi-similar players with the same tall, skinny build, and each has some of the biggest potential as it relates to young 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 lean towards him. However, speaking on Run It Back on FanDuel TV, former NBA star Lou Williams thinks everyone is making the wrong comparison, as it relates to Wembanyama vs. Holmgren.
“There’s levels to this conversation. The real rivalry is gonna be SGA and Wemby. Those are the MVP candidates,” Williams said. “Why would an MVP candidate have a rivalry with a guy who’s not in that conversation?”
Williams claimed that with the starpower between Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, they should be the two compared, rather than the French star and Holmgren. The conversation around the rivalry has heated up after the Spurs have beaten the Thunder three times in 12 days, one of which came in the NBA Cup semifinals, and another coming 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 the 7’5” center has the upper hand in every single major 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 where Williams’ 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… I don’t think this is even a thing. I don’t think this is even sexy enough for us to even continue to even talk about.”
Chandler Parsons, former NBA player and Williams’ co-host, added that he agrees with the three-time Sixth Man of the Year’s conclusion.
“If this is going to be a rivalry, Chet needs to start having some big-time games and OKC’s gotta win some of these games,” he said.
Wembanyama himself commented on his rivalry with Holmgren when asked by a French reporter after the Spurs’ Christmas Day win over the Thunder.
“No, I don’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.
Despite the fact that Wembanyama was returning from an 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 the Thunder’s top-rated, suffocating defense.
“I think this is a matchup that’s going to [continue to be] problematic for OKC,” Williams said. “With San Antonio, and a 7’5” Wemby, that creates a big problem for OKC moving forward.”
Williams added that despite the three recent wins for the Spurs, that doesn’t guarantee they’d win in 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 like it’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 French center’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 today in the form of Wembanayama, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Holmgren.
Eli Gregorski is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy Sports. He has years of sports writing experience covering the NBA, NFL, college football and basketball, international soccer, and Formula One. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was the assistant sports editor for the award-winning CU Independent student publication. More about Eli Gregorski
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