Until proven otherwise, Chet Holmgren will have a cloud attached above his seven-foot frame. It's been a summer filled with ridicule as the NBA world has turned him into an online punching bag. After the Oklahoma City Thunder fell to the San Antonio Spurs, he must climb out of a hole he dug himself.
The first step toward that happened on Monday. As the Thunder hosted 2026-27 Media Day, Holmgren was blitzed with questions about Victor Wembanyama and his low-level four-point outing in a Game 7 loss. Much has been made of that over the offseason. To the point that he's closer to an NBA meme than an NBA champion.
For Holmgren, though, the message was the same as in his 2025-26 exit interview — moving and building on the humiliating moment. With the Thunder
having his back, the All-NBA talent reflected on his first taste of serious scrutiny as an NBA player.
"I feel like I've always had personal motivations," Holmgren said. "Over time, I've tried to distance them from outcomes, good or bad, because outcomes change, as we know. Outcomes change a lot. Night to night. Year to year. If you base your motivation based on outcomes, your motivation is going to go up and down. I feel like I have very consistent motivations. I try to stick to those."
Right now, Holmgren is at a fork in the road. Does he bounce back from his no-show performance against Victor Wembanyama or does he let it completely derail any momentum he had as one of the most decorated players through three years of their career? We shall see. Only time will tell. But the Thunder are banking on the former. They know what he's made of.
For now, though, it's about leveling up. Holmgren enjoyed a breakout season last year. He was a first-time All-NBA, All-Defense and All-Star player. He finished as the DPOY runner-up. Even with his disastrous finish, all signs indicate that the 24-year-old remains one of the game's top players.
It's now about playing at that level against the pesky Spurs. That said, Holmgren has — at least publicly — refused to fan the flames with his beef with Wembanyama. Even with it spilling over to toxic levels of discourse following the Western Conference Finals, he's viewing the epic seven-game series from a methodological standpoint. There's little for him to gain by playing into the rivalry dynamics that feel like the elephant in the room.
"I think I learned a lot from the year that we won it, and I honestly think that my approach was very similar," Holmgren said. "Obviously, the emotions of it were different, but I don't think my process changed at all. After we won it, obviously it's good emotions. You're at the highest of highs. But at some point — which was still relatively pretty quick. You have to flush those emotions and look at the reality of what the tape is and then figure out how you can kind of improve on those things."
Look, Holmgren completely botched his approach with an NBA Finals trip on the line. There's no denying that. But it happened. Let's move on. Nothing can change things now. Barring a time machine. With the Thunder and Spurs playoff series Part II feeling inevitable, he'll get a shot at redemption. That's what sports are all about. We'll see if things look any different on a second go-around.
But for the time being, you can't let your history with the Spurs become an obsession. The Thunder are cognizant of that. There are 28 other teams to worry about. And if OKC wants a legitimate chance to right its wrong, it needs to take care of business with the rest of the league first.
"I'd say that was no different after last season," Holmgren said. "Obviously, different emotions, but you still have to get to a baseline where you can look at things objectively and then figure out how to try to improve from there."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Chet Holmgren ready to move on from failures against Spurs, Wembanyama
