Chet Holmgren Lets His Play Quiet Summer Chatter

Oklahoma City Thunder star Chet Holmgren was an All-NBA, All-Star and All-Defense selection last season. He finished #2 in Defensive Player of the Year voting. The year before, a 23 year old Holmgren anchored one of the greatest defenses of all time en route to an NBA Championship despite coming off of a hip fracture. He recorded a league record 5 blocks in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The 7'1" big man is a true unicorn who dominated every opponent and every playoff matchup the last two seasons.

Except for one.

One disappointing series, and particularly one substandard Game 7, against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs had unfortunately overshadowed all of the accolades and accomplishments over the course of the offseason. The narratives on Holmgren had become hyperbolic and irrational.

Despite the fact that he had proven to be one of the best young players in the world, everyone was hyper focused solely on the Spurs matchup. No matter how Holmgren played against every other team, NBA social media, bloggers and talking heads were going to gauge the Wembanyama duel to form their opinions.

Holmgren responded to all the offseason chatter with a phenomenal performance on Opening Night.

Oklahoma City Thunder fans hoped to see Holmgren come out aggressive and physical on Opening Night against the Spurs. Just three minutes into the game, he drove right into Wembanyama's body and finished a tough bucket over the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. The tone was set immediately. Holmgren was bringing the fight to the Spurs.

The box score is telling. Holmgren finished with 14 points. Eight of those came from the free throw line as he attacked the paint. He finished with 4 blocks. Three against Dylan Harper and one against Wembanyama. Most importantly, Holmgren was the primary defender on the San Antonio superstar on a night he shot 1-13 from the field. That includes an 0-5 effort when defended by Holmgren.

"I feel like the first thing you have to do is remove the emotions from it," Holmgren said postgame when asked by The Oklahoman's Justin Martinez about how he handled the outside noise this summer. "I did the same thing when we had a different outcome the year before. Emotions don’t really help you. You have to be able to look at things objectively and look at the facts, and that’s what tells you where and how you can improve. That’s the first thing I tried to, just remove the emotions from it and then look at the tangible things.”

Chet Holmgren is a highly efficient scorer and one of the two best defenders on the planet. He's an All-NBA two-way talent. He's one of the best three players on a team that won a title two seasons ago. For anyone who doubted his standing as an top tier player in this league because of one underwhelming playoff series, Opening Night was a good reminder.