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Devin Vassell and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup semifinals game.<\/p>\n
LAS VEGAS \u2014 Tony Parker was one of the retired NBA stars attending the Emirates NBA Cup 2025<\/a> this weekend and recognized for their contributions, but in his specific case, he was no curious bystander.<\/p>\n The Hall of Famer has an emotional stake in the San Antonio Spurs, the team he helped win four championships, and this was before the Spurs played the behemoth from Oklahoma City in the semifinals. Let\u2019s just say that, after the fact, that stake has now intensified.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir team is great,\u201d Parker said, \u201cbut we\u2019re being built to get on that same level someday soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Is that soon as in \u2026 soon enough? Sooner than anyone previously thought \u2014 especially before the Spurs issued a firm statement-maker in Saturday\u2019s 111-109 win<\/a> over OKC?<\/p>\n For the first two months of the season, the search for a competitor for the Thunder peered into several NBA corners and came up empty. Nobody managed to defiantly step forward. This team won 24 of its first 25 games. There was nobody going eyeball-to-eyeball with the defending champs.<\/p>\n Until \u2026 now?<\/p>\n At the very least, what the Spurs did was announce themselves as perhaps a rival, for this season, more strongly in the next several seasons. Yes, there is danger in being a prisoner of the moment. Yes, these young Spurs haven\u2019t done anything, haven\u2019t won anything special. Yes, the Thunder deserve a bit more respect than that, and a momentary stumble \u2014 only their second defeat all season \u2014 shouldn\u2019t suddenly change the landscape and put them on red alert.<\/p>\n \u201cPossibly,\u201d answered Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. \u201cYeah, there\u2019s a good chance. They are young, really good, have a lot of talent, play the right way. They play a good brand of basketball.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve noticed that anything can happen in a couple years. So, yeah, it\u2019s definitely a possibility. Not a hundred percent but definitely a possibility, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Spurs top the Thunder 111-109 to advance to the Emirates NBA Cup Championship against the Knicks on Tuesday, December 16.<\/p>\n The reasons for this are clear. The Spurs have rising talent, they\u2019re well-coached even here in the post-Gregg Popovich era and so far this season they\u2019ve been solid \u2014 with and without Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n And he\u2019s the obvious reason this is even a conversation. Wemby is just 21. He isn\u2019t going anywhere. And he\u2019s not as good as he can be, and maybe will be. Which means that, throughout however long this lofty OKC era lasts with Shai and Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, the Thunder must Deal With Him.<\/p>\n He\u2019s not hard to miss at 7-foot-5, and will be really hard to miss if he keeps giving Holmgren the business like he did Saturday \u2014 blocking one of his shots, among other things \u2014 and gives OKC\u2019s much-respected defense plenty of adjustment problems.<\/p>\n What satisfied Wemby mostly was how his teammates responded against the league\u2019s top-rated team. Wemby played only 21 minutes, and yes, the Spurs were far better with him on the floor than on the bench.<\/p>\n Yet he has watched his teammates enough during his three-week absence to chart their growth and project better results down the line.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re on the right path,\u201d Wembanyama said, \u201cand for the first time in my career, not in the case of everybody in our group, for the first time in my career, we\u2019re winning much more than we\u2019re losing.\u201d<\/p>\n All of this leads back to OKC and how much damage, if any, the Spurs can do against the Thunder between now and \u2026 whenever. This is the time of year when seeds are planted and notes are kept and matchups are studied, on both sides, and saved for the postseason just in case. The Thunder want to identify their biggest threat, and the Spurs suspect they\u2019re it.<\/p>\n More evidence will arrive very soon: the teams will meet twice next week, two days apart, and most vividly on Christmas Day; a basketball nation awaits the rematch.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to playing them more times to get better throughout the season,\u201d said OKC\u2019s Jalen Williams. \u201cAnd they are well-coached. So when you add physicality and good defenders up there, and you can tell they are really trying to figure that out defensively; it causes its own little problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Check out Victor Wembanyama’s top plays of the season … so far!<\/p>\n Here\u2019s why, in the words of Shai, \u201cthere\u2019s a chance\u201d this rivalry could mushroom:<\/p>\n \u2022 Wemby, obviously. He was on MVP pace prior to his calf strain, and any team with dreams of unseating the Thunder must bring a force to match the one offered by the current MVP. Enough said.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Spurs\u2019 guards aren\u2019t scared. De\u2019Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper match up favorably with Shai and his backcourt mates. And obviously, in the case of Castle (the reining Rookie of the Year) and Harper (who\u2019ll be in contention for that this year), they can only improve.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have good guards that take pride in playing defense,\u201d Williams said. \u201cSo anytime you get to play teams like that, it\u2019s fun. It makes you better.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Dynasties are difficult. The Thunder might learn as much, here in The Season After. They needed a pair of Game Sevens to win a championship last year, remember, and partly because the Nuggets and Pacers were missing or slowed by key players with injuries.<\/p>\n \u2022 Somebody must step forward in the West. And why not the Spurs? None of the other competitors as rivals for OKC \u2014 the Lakers and Nuggets or even the Rockets \u2014 bring the upside of San Antonio. And they don\u2019t have Wemby.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s why this rivalry might need a minute before taking root:<\/p>\n \u2022 This is the NBA. Nothing is promised. Blueprints can be fragile. And the basketball Gods tend to laugh at the plans and dreams put in place by teams and players.<\/p>\n \u2022 Wemby must stay healthy, which hasn\u2019t always been the case, even if out of anyone\u2019s control (deep vein thrombosis).<\/p>\n \u2022 The Thunder are holding the ultimate ace card(s). They own a treasure chest of first-round picks and can pull the emergency cord by trading one or more at any time if they sense the need to add help and get better quickly, if that\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Spurs need to follow up Saturday\u2019s win with another against OKC. If not, then everything resets back to where it was before the NBA Cup meeting, when OKC rolled everyone.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our next step,\u201d said Wembanyama, \u201cbecause this OKC team, they\u2019re not just first in the league, they\u2019re way ahead of everybody. Because when you watch them, no matter who, whether it\u2019s the 12th man or the starting 5, whether they\u2019re playing against the 15th seed or in any kind of game, they\u2019re playing the same way. This is the next step we have to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s a step that bears watching, because in the curious case of discovering a rivalry for Oklahoma City, if not the Spurs, then who?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m anxious,\u201d said Tony Parker. \u201cWith the vision that\u2019s in place, anything\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Shaun Powell has covered the NBA since 1985. You can email him\u00a0here<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n