	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

June 13, 2019

Fred VanVleet

Oakland, California - Postgame 6

Toronto - 114, Golden State - 110

Q. Someone has to ask, is your son the real MVP of this series?
FRED VANVLEET: If that's what you want, man, write whatever story you want. I don't even give a damn. Just unbelievably blessed. Obviously I take family very seriously and hold it dear to my heart, so it came at a great time. And there's a lot of other things that go into that. I won't bore you with the details, but that's the story you like so be it.

Q. Has it been more about talent, more about the right tactics, more about heart and resiliency, what was the secret of this team, why are you the best this year?
FRED VANVLEET: It's all of those things. You nailed it. There's no one thing. We have a lot of talent, we're very deep team. You go down this roster, there were guys who didn't even play who are very capable. We have a lot of talent. When that talent works hard and goes out there and pays it forward every day, then have you a chance to be special. And then when you're tied in and your coaching staff gives you good game plans, and you go out there and try to execute, and you work together, the sky's the limit. And we were able to do that over the course of the playoffs.

Q. Curious as to your thoughts about the balance. You guys have guys that are obviously undrafted like you, guys from small schools, guys that were from Europe, but also multiple all-stars on this squad as well. Are you guys a super team or no?
FRED VANVLEET: We're NBA champions so if that makes you a super team I'll take it. People don't view us that way because it's untraditional. It's not the glam stars. None of our guys probably, other than Kawhi, are in that big boy club or the fan boy club of the NBA. We got guys who had to get it the long way, who had to get it out of the mud, who had to get it against the grain. And we got a team full of them coming from all different places, all walks of life, all different life stories to get to this moment. But we got some talent, we got some talent for sure. And at the end of the day going out there in the playoffs is about performing at a high level, and we were able to do that over the course of two months.

Q. Five of the six games in this series were won by the road team and that was done in two particularly difficult places to play, arenas. What's the key in on this stage to winning games when you are the traveling party?
FRED VANVLEET: I think it allows you to lock in a little bit better. I think it allows you to have that us against the world mentality where the only thing that matters is the guy next to you. And your crowd being anxious and excited doesn't have any affect on you when you're on the road. It takes a different level of effort, and I think that for us going on the road it allowed us to take it up a notch more than what we usually do. You can't rely on the crowd to give you runs or to give you energy, you got to go out there and do it yourself. Usually winning a NBA championship you're going to have to win some games on the road and we were able to do that.

Q. You spent a lot of time with Steph in this series. First off, did you get a chance to, at the end of it all, to sort of exchange anything with him?
FRED VANVLEET: Yeah. Just try to pay our respects and shake most of those guys' hands as best you can. He was kind of the first guy I was next to. Just obviously letting him know how much respect and admiration I have for him and vice versa. We compete, we really compete together, we compete on this stage. And those guys are super competitors, as are we. So to be able to just in defeat, their guys are very gracious, and they know what it takes to get to this stage, so they were very congratulatory as well.

Q. And what was it like when Nick told you he was going to give you that assignment and put that on your shoulders?
FRED VANVLEET: Yeah. I just tried to own up to it. I tried to live up to it. It's a big task, it's a big assignment, and I know what it meant to our team. So I did pretty good over the course of the series. He got loose, it felt like he scored a thousand points on me. As a defender you never like getting scored on, so that was tough. And it's obviously the toughest guy I had to guard for that long every game, all game, a million screens, it's hard to push and grab, he's so good at drawing fouls. So I just tried to live up to the challenge and accept the challenge and hopefully I gained some respect there and just tried to help my team get wins.

Q. Nick Nurse made some polarizing calls in these Finals. He also put a lot of trust in you. Wondering in your opinion how instrumental was he in the team's success throughout the season and in The Finals?
FRED VANVLEET: He's our head coach. He's our head coach. And you guys kill head coaches when we lose. Coaches get all the blame, and when we win players get all the credit, so that's just how it goes. But Nick has been unbelievable. He's kind of been the captain of the ship, and he's weathered the storms, and he's kept us even-keeled, and he's made some unusual adjustments and experimented things. And some things worked and some things didn't, but he was trying. He tried everything and you got to give that guy a lot of credit in his first year to win a NBA championship. Also want to give Coach Casey a lot of credit for building this team up to what it was, the guys who were here before, DeMar, JV, Delon, Jakob, the guys who we built this up to what it was, and then to be able to take it to the next level this year, give Nurse a lot of credit for steering that ship. Don't ask no damn question back there.

Q. Kyle Lowry, Toronto Raptors. Fred, how does it feel to be a world champion?
FRED VANVLEET: Um, it's unbelievable, man. It's unbelievable to have guys like Kyle Lowry on your team who step up and go for 15 in the first quarter. But he should have had 50. But he slowed down, so I just wanted to come out there in the second half and bail him out and just try to help him for his legacy. They killed my man all the time in the playoffs. He gets more slandered than anybody I ever seen in the league. And so to have him be able to hold that trophy up tonight, that's what means the most for us.

Q. Thank you.
(Laughter.)

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297