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By Megan Armstrong
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Victor Wembanyama diagnosed Chet Holmgren as his rival years before Holmgren was drafted second overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2022 and Wembanyama went No. 1 overall to the San Antonio Spurs in 2023, as explained here.
Holmgren is listed at 7-foot-1. Wembanyama is listed at 7-foot-4. There can only be one superstar skinny big man in the NBA at once, and Wembanyama has repeatedly made it clear that he wants to win as many championships and MVPs as possible.
Wembanyama's on-court hatred for Holmgren has never been more evident than during the Western Conference Finals, and it crescendoed with an emphatic poster dunk over Holmgren in the opening minutes of Game 7 on Saturday night.
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Holmgren seems confused by the whole thing, at least publicly, which stops it from being a full-blown rivalry.
"The way I see it, when you’re in it, you have to look at it as Thunder vs. Spurs," Holmgren said on NBC's "NBA Showtime" after the Thunder won Game 5 on Tuesday. "We’re trying to win these games. They’re trying to win these games. That’s how you have to attack it. They have a really good team. We have a really good team."
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Holmgren continued, "Things are fragile in the NBA, but we're gonna try to keep this thing going for as long as we can. I'm sure they are, too. I'm sure that means we're gonna cross paths a lot."
This season, the Spurs and Thunder couldn't be more evenly matched juggernauts. While the Thunder are the reigning champions with the reigning back-to-back NBA MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Spurs have been the only team to make them look mortal. I guess that can happen when you have "The Alien" on your team.
The Spurs went 4-1 against the Thunder in the regular season and have pushed them to a Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals. The winner of Game 7 will host the New York Knicks for Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals on Wednesday.
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