Chet Holmgren won’t make the Spurs personal after his rough conference finals: ‘I relish every game’

Chet Holmgren says he has put last spring’s Western Conference finals behind him, and he is not about to turn Tuesday’s opener in San Antonio into a personal grudge match with Victor Wembanyama, even though the Spurs center won their playoff duel by a wide margin.

In an early-October interview with Chris Mannix for a Sports Illustrated cover story, the Oklahoma City Thunder big man kept steering away from the rivalry. Asked if he looks forward to the matchup, he answered, “I relish every game.” Asked whether Wembanyama had made it personal, he said that was a question for the Frenchman. Pressed on whether San Antonio feels different from Denver, Minnesota or the Lakers, he took a long pause and could not find a better way to describe it.

A series he wants to forget, not repeat

The numbers explain the edge in the questions. In the conference finals, which the Spurs took in seven games after trailing 3-2, Holmgren averaged 10.7 points and hit 27.3 percent of his threes, while Wembanyama put up 27.3 points a night on 40 percent from deep. Game 7 was the low point: four points and four rebounds for Holmgren against 22 and seven for his rival. The two have now met 15 times, and San Antonio leads those games 8-7.

Holmgren described his offseason rule in one word: disassociate. He told Mannix he tries to cut himself off from how a season ended, good or bad, saying the goal is to “disassociate from the emotions of it.” He admitted it took him a couple of weeks after the loss to get there, because a season that ends short of a title can feel like wasted work.

Once he moved on, the work was specific. He went back through film of the many different coverages teams threw at him, spent time on getting his shot off faster and on playing at a quicker pace, and added strength. His listed weight went from 213 to 215 pounds, but he says he feels stronger. His trainer, Drew Hanlen, told reporters that Holmgren trusts himself more and believes he has answers for last season’s problems.

The regular season that came first

The playoff slump came after the best regular season of his career. According to his whynba player page, Holmgren averaged 17.1 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 69 starts in 2025-26, shooting 55.7 percent from the field and 36.2 percent from three, a season that brought his first All-Star nod and his first All-NBA team. Across 15 playoff games he averaged 14.9 points. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault backed him without hedging, telling Sports Illustrated he is more confident in Holmgren this season because he is a year older and handled a hard series the right way.

Holmgren did concede that games against elite opponents carry more charge than a December trip to a rebuilding team, and he called the Thunder and Spurs two talented young teams that produce fiery games. He just does not want that single matchup to pull him away from the bigger goal.

What comes next

Holmgren missed the entire preseason with a quad injury, and his status for the opener is still uncertain. The Thunder visit the Spurs on Tuesday, October 20, at 9:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, the first meeting since Game 7 (Game Center).