All eyes were on Chet Holmgren last night as the defending champions, the Thunder, lost 115-122 against his rival, Victor Wembanyama, and the Spurs in Game 1 of their Western Conference Finals series.
Victor Wembanyama made it fairly evident that no one on the Thunder could guard him as he ended up with 41 points, 24 rebounds, three assists, and three blocks while going 14-25 (56.0 FG%) from the field and 1-2 from behind the three-point line (50.0 3P%) in 49 minutes played.
On the other hand, Chet Holmgren struggled with just eight points, eight rebounds, one steal, and two blocks in 41 minutes of action (2-7 FG, 28.6 FG%, 2-4 3P, 50.0 3P%).
Following Game 1, a video was leaked on social media that exposed Chet Holmgren for resorting to unethically stepping on Victor Wembanyama’s foot while trying to stop him from getting an offensive rebound.
One more reason Wemby can’t stand Chet. 😤#Spurs #Thunder #PorVida
(T/H 📱FB user @bisayablagtv) pic.twitter.com/Dt7VPGxqmu
— SpursRΞPORTΞR (@SpursReporter) May 19, 2026
Several fans on social media were furious to see the defending champions resort to such dangerous moves that could derail Wembanyama’s career if he seriously gets hurt. They called out Chet Holmgren for using this “dirty” tactic.
“The whole OKC team is some cheating mixed bag of fruits.”
“He should be fined; that could have hurt the future goat and ended his goat status.”
“This s— is disgusting. League need send a fine man.”
“Bro is cheating just to compete and still losing.”
“Played dirty and still lost.”
“And Thunder fans wanna cry that Wemby’s dirty 💀💀💀.”
To be fair, while some may argue this is in spirit of competition and a common occurrence in the league, the NBA has ever since the Kawhi Leonard incident with Zaza Pachulia, become a lot more sensitive about keeping players’ feet safe to avoid career-ending injuries.
Therefore, if this footage reaches the league office, the possibility of a fine is realistic. However, one can argue that this is nowhere close to the things that Lu Dort has done earlier in the season and gotten away with.
But focusing on Holmgren’s performance, beyond just doing almsot anything to try and stop Wembanyama, Holmgren did not significantly contribute to call this a close competition with his ‘rival’.
Chet Holmgren Faces Backlash For Poor Game 1 Against Victor Wembanyama
Several renowned voices across the league called out the Thunder forward for not rising to the occassion against Victor Wembanyama. Among them was Stephen A. Smith who appeared on ESPN’s First Take and ripped into Chet Holmgren.
“Chet Holmgren, what’s up? What’s up? We heard all of this noise, all of these years. Supposedly, I don’t know, never asked him, but y’all don’t necessarily get along. Y’all don’t really like each other. You and Wembanyama, obviously.”
“I understand he’s 7’5. Bro, you ain’t 6’5, you 7’1, right? You understand? You got skills. You can play. I’m looking at this and I’m like, how Wemby’s doing what he’s doing? But to compare that and juxtapose that to Chet Holmgren doing nothing offensively, nothing offensively. It’s like, damn, you got to accept that challenge.”
“And then when you sit when you watch Wembanyama close the deal in the two overtimes, five for six shooting, 14 points in the two overtimes, right? You can’t have Alex Caruso.”
“It’s one thing to guard him on the perimeter. I get that. You get up under him. You try to make it uncomfortable. You understand what I’m saying? Try to take his legs out from under him. Make sure he going to get comfortably set to launch a jumper. Got that part.”
“But anything in the paint area, you can’t have an Alex Caruso or a Jalen Williams or somebody guarding him. That’s supposed to be Chet Holmgren going like, ‘Coach, I got this. I got this assignment.’ That’s supposed to be Hartenstein, [saying] I got this assignment. It can’t be cats a foot shorter than him trying to guard him in the post.”
“I mean, listen, we if put it to you this way, we in the park, it could be Ruck, it could be West Fourth, it could be anywhere, right? If you see a dude in the post area, right, and you see somebody half their size on them, you going to go like this? ‘No, no, no, no. We got to get somebody else on them.’ And who’s that person? The person closest to their size. Where the hell is Chet Holmgren?”
“I mean, you’re 7’1. You’re 7’1. It ain’t like this is, you know, it’s it’s not like you’re 6’5 and he’s a foot taller than you. You letting guys guard that man,” Stephen A. Smith further added.
“And I know Daigneault is the coach and he’s an exceptional coach. He’s a champion and he’s sitting up there and he’s giving assignments. But damn it, you know this Wilbon better than all of us, okay? With all the years you’ve covered the NBA. If somebody’s in the vicinity of your size and they wreaking havoc, all the great players we’ve covered throughout the decades, who’s not raising their hand, yo, I got this.”
“Ron Harper in the last dance. What are you talking about? And I bring him up because his son is special. Dylan Harper is special, y’all. He is special. Make no mistake about a rookie, y’all. 24-11 with seven steals. That brother is special.”
“But Ron Harper, what was the thing in the last dance Wilbon that he complained about? Michael Jordan’s famous shot over Craig Ehlo. He wanted the offensive assignment and wasn’t he wanted it and Lenny Wilkins said, ‘No, I’m going to say Craig Ehlo.’ He like, ‘All right.’ You know, but the point is he wanted the assignment.”
“Chet Holmgren, you got to want this. You don’t like him, right? Y’all don’t necessarily get along, right? Y’all nemesises, right? You the champion. Yo, he’s coming to take what you’ve got. What you gonna do about it? Leave it to Alex Caruso? Leave it to Jalen Williams? You got to guard that man. At some point, he got to embrace that challenge,” concluded Stephen A. Smith.
Stephen A. Smith also recommended that in the event that if the Thunder lose to the Spurs in the playoffs, they should consider trading Chet Holmgren for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Subsequently, former NBA player DeMarcus Cousins also called out Chet Holmgren and blamed him for the defending champions’ Game 1 loss on FanDuel’s Run It Back show.
“This guy put on a historic performance. He showed he’s the most dominant player on the floor. He showed that he wanted it the most last night, especially more than the other bigs on the opposite side. And that’s that’s really where my issue is tonight,” Cousins said about Wembanyama initially.
“Like this despite the incredible defensive performance by Wemby, I put this on Chet. I put this on Chet. I think you have to step up and accept that challenge. That’s his matchup, you know. There’s no reason to be having your 6’3-6’4 guards every possession guard him at the free throw line extended.”
“You have to step up and accept that challenge. I think that’s what changes the series for OKC moving forward. If not, this could get really ugly if that’s the game plan every night as far as, you know, how we want to guard Wemby. Wemby is the focal point of their offense. Wemby is the the X factor. He’s the game changer.”
“So, you have to accept that challenge to be the game changer defensively. And the reason I’m saying that because he does have the ability to do so. I didn’t like what I saw,” Cousins further added on Holmgren.
“I felt like Chet… He tucked his tail. Okay. He tucked his tail. And like I said, he’s way too good for that. But I put this on him. I mean I believe they still had a chance to win despite the numbers. But defensively, the way he, you know, continued to kind of avoid that matchup, this is on Chet for me.”
Cousins later confirmed on X that he feels in Chet Holmgren bounces back in Game 2, he could be the X-factor for the Thunder in this series. But considering their persistent struggles, I don’t anticipate many adjustments from Holmgren across the series.
Therefore Game 2 will be pivotal to decide how the rest of this series goes for Chet Holmgren against Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs have already won five out of the six times they faced the Thunder this season (including Game 1), so going 0-2 against a team that has had your number throughout the season will not be ideal for the defending champions.
