The Oklahoma City Thunder will take on the San Antonio Spurs in their third in-season tournament pool play game. The OKC Thunder are looking to make history with their first pool play win of the season, and it marks the beginning of what looks to be the NBA’s budding rivalry featuring Chet Holmgren.
On Tuesday, ahead of the their matchup, the OKC Thunder made Chet Holmgren available at shoot around. While much attention is being paid to the new in-season tournament, the biggest headline in this tilt is our first look at Holmgren vs Victor Wembanyama.
Victor Wembanyama is held as this never-before-seen prospect, the best we have evaluated since LeBron James, and a clear runaway for the Rookie of the Year race on paper.
However, after a year on the shelf, Holmgren has made his triumphant return to the hardwood and was once thought of as a franchise-changing prospect just 12 months ago.
Through ten games, they are both played up to expectations, even at times surpassing them. Given their similar frame and pre-draft hype, they will forever be linked.
OKC Thunder center Chet Holmgren speaks out on budding rivalry with Victor Wembanyama.
In the NBA Preseason, we got a taste of this matchup, and the two looked right as rivals. For as good as the NBA has been in recent years, During that exhibition clash, the two unicorn big men seemed to go at each other but kept it “within the flow” of the game, as both noted post-game.
Now, the real deal takes center stage on Tuesday in a Nationally Televised affair on TNT. Chet Holmgren will meet Victor Wembanyama in the jump circle at 6:30 in the Paycom Center.
Chet Holmgren on his potential budding rivalry with Victor Wembanyama “I’m not worried about the next 15 years, I’m worried about helping the Thunder try to beat the Spurs tonight” pic.twitter.com/k0xon6o83O
— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) November 14, 2023
At his shoot around media availability, Chet Holmgren was pressed into questions about his big man counterpart for this game and the potential for them to be rivals for the next 15 years.
“I am not worried about the next 15 years. I’m worried about helping the Thunder try to beat the Spurs tonight,” Holmgren said post-shoot around. When pressed for more of a comment on these two, Holmgren continued to stand firm in the now instead of projecting a decade and a half from now.
No matter how much Chet Holmgren shoves the potential rivalry to the side, it will not stop this runaway hype train surrounding these big men. Tonight will be the first installment of it.