Chet Holmgren denies there is any beef between him and Victor Wembanyama

Two players can play hard on the court without actually hating each other.

Perhaps one of the most manufactured rivalries of last season was the one between Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama and runner-up Chet Holmgren. Both are long, lanky, versatile players on both ends of the floor who figure to dominate the big-man landscape for years to come. Each Spurs-Thunder matchup was highly anticipated and brought plenty of viewers who wanted to see the two young unicorns, but as intense as those battles were, it seemed fans and the media wanted to help add to the budding on-court rivalry by claiming there was a “beef” between the two players.

Now, Holmgren is setting the record straight. Speaking on Paul George’s podcast, he was asked where the energy and intensity came from when the two of them faced off against each other. While Holmgren noted that the two had faced each other on the international stage before they were in the NBA and they are both competitors, in actuality, he barely knows Wemby in person, and he sees a “beef” as being between people who have actual issues with each other and are looking for a fight. That is not the case between Holmgren and Wemby (at least not yet).

He also discussed other topics, such as the Rookie of the Year race while shooting down haters who say he wasn’t a rookie (he missed the entire 2022-23 season with a leg injury), noting that if you’re playing in your first NBA game, you are a rookie. Even so, he still felt Wemby was deserving (so again, no beef). He also said the main thing he learned from playing against Wemby was simply to remember that facing someone who is 7’5” is different than 6’9”, so you have to make those adjustments.

You can watch the entire interview below. His segment discussing Wemby begins at the 29:00 mark, with the beef part specifically beginning at the 32:06 mark.

Even if there isn’t any “beef” between Holmgren and Wembanyama, that doesn’t mean it won’t be an intense rivalry going forward, and not just between those two. While the Spurs are still a year or two behind the Thunder in their rebuild, both figure to be battling each other for championships in the future, rekindling a relatively brief but intense rivalry from the 2010’s, when the Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook Thunder battled the The Big Three plus Kawhi Leonard three times, including in 2014 when the Spurs won a nailbiter game 6 to advance to the Finals and win the their latest championship.

With the Thunder’s core of Holmgren, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams presumably set, a Spurs core centered around Wemby, Devin Vassell and another piece yet to be either named or discovered hope to join them at the top of the Western Conference standings soon. When that time comes, the Spurs-Thunder rivalry will be back on.