Dirk Nowitzki calls out Victor Wembanyama’s ‘dismissive’ Chet Holmgren comment

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Dirk Nowitzki calls out Victor Wembanyama’s ‘dismissive’ Chet Holmgren comment

Malik Brown, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Sun, Dec 14, 2025 ·

2 min read

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Dirk Nowitzki calls out Victor Wembanyama's 'dismissive' Chet Holmgren comment appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .

The San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder were in a battle in the NBA Cup semifinals, and it was the former who was able to advance with a win. It was a game between two of the best teams in the Western Conference, and the Spurs got some help in this matchup as Victor Wembanyama returned after missing the past few weeks due to injury.

Before the game, an interview aired which featured Wembanyama, and he was asked about the rivalry with Chet Holmgren , who have went to battle a few times in the past few years. Instead of giving props to Holmgren, Wembanyama directed his attention to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander .

"The MVP is on that court, he's our main focus. Anybody is hard to guard when you have to help on the MVP," Wembanyama said.

That led to many people thinking that Wembanyama was taking shots at Holmgren, which is very understandable, and that he was downplaying what the Thunder center could do.

Dirk Nowitzki , on the other hand, was not very fond of Wembanyama's comments and had something to say during the broadcast after the interview aired.

"I do want to say, I didn't love his answer about Chet Holmgren ," Nowitzki said. "I wish he would've given him a little bit of credit. You can say, 'Hey, they have the MVP. Shai's incredible, but Chet's gotten better every year. He's a champ. I want to play hard against them.' I didn't love that answer. To me, it's too swaggy, too dismissive of Chet."

That is also a way to look at Wembanyama's comments, and it's quite uncertain if he meant it in that context. It wouldn't be surprising if he did, because Wembanyama has shown that he is a competitor and doesn't back down from anybody.

These two will have battles for years and probably decades to come, and it will be interesting to see what comes out of those duels.

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