	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

May 29, 2019

Fred VanVleet

Toronto, Ontario - Practice Day

Q. Not sure if this here today is the moment where it kind of sinks in a little bit for you but just looking around at the media and what this means, not only to the city and the country, but what does this mean to you and to the team to be in this situation?
FRED VANVLEET: It's special. I think that this is what you work for. You work yourself to be able to perform at the highest level on the highest stage and here we are. So we have earned it. We deserve to be here. Now it's just a matter of staying focused and staying locked in to complete the last step of our journey.

So just getting here is not good enough for us. We want to go out there and have a chance to compete for the trophy.

Q. Is five or ten days off more preferable? What do you do during these off days to prepare for this?
FRED VANVLEET: It doesn't matter. If you're hurt, you want as many days as you can get, and if you're not, you're ready to lace them up the next day. We'll play whenever the schedule says we play. It depends on how you look at it. If you have rest and you play well, then the rest was good. And if you don't play well, then the rest was bad. It's that simple. Everything is performance based, so we have to go out there and perform at a high level.

Q. How do you stay locked in with all of this frenzy in this city?
FRED VANVLEET: It's really not that hard. Just stay level-headed, stay in the middle. For me, it's really easy because I just saw the flip side of it not even a week ago. It's really easy to manage through all of this stuff that comes with the highs of the game. And when you understand the lows of it, you know you find yourself at a happy medium.

Q. The fact that you have home-court advantage in this series what does that mean for you guys, the players?
FRED VANVLEET: Just we get a chance to play in front of our fans first, and we have to try to get as many wins as we can. We'll go out there and try and get a win tomorrow. At this point, I don't think that it's that big of a deal. But we obviously have to try to use that to our advantage.

Q. Kawhi keeps saying enjoy the moment, enjoy the moment. Why do you think he keeps preaching that, and how do you do it?
FRED VANVLEET: I think that we all just have a collective understanding of how hard it is to get here. Him and Danny had a chance to get here before, and then struggled to get back a little bit. It's not easy. You don't want to take it for granted. Serge went seven, eight years ago and this is his first time back. Kyle has been in the league 13 years; this is his first time. So just have to enjoy the moment. I think that we're all trying to do a good job of just relishing it, not taking anything for granted, staying focused on the task at hand, trying to complete our journey.

Q. What the city was like after Game 6, we had never seen anything like that before. Was there any moment watching all of that unfold where you were like, our team's got to deliver for this city? Or did that serve as motivation going into this round?
FRED VANVLEET: I think we motivate ourselves. I think that obviously we love our fans and we love this city. We love this country. We love playing in Toronto and in Canada.

We owe it to ourselves more than anybody. The work that we put in. We owe it to our teammates, owe it to this organization first and foremost, and hopefully we're making our fans proud. I think that we are, and I think that's what you saw the other night. It's only going to get crazier from here. And so that really is not our motivating factor. But at the end of the day, we know that we have the support of the fans, and especially if we go out there and take care of business, we're excited to see how that will turn out.

Q. Do you feel like the underdogs going into this NBA Finals?
FRED VANVLEET: I don't know. Just depends on what type of narratives you want. I feel like we're a very good team. We have been one of the top teams in the NBA all year, and here we are with a chance to play against one of the other top teams in the NBA. Sometimes it's just as simple as that. So those guys are defending champions. We know that. We respect them. But we feel like we're just as good. It's time for us to go out there and perform at a high level.

Q. Coming out of college your first year you got a chance to get playing time. Can you speak to how important your relationship with Dwane Casey was and how him getting you out there in the fire in the beginning helped give you the confidence that you could play at this level?
FRED VANVLEET: Yeah, he was a very, very key part of my career. Just the simple fact that he played smaller guards. You'll meet coaches and organizations in this league that just don't believe in that and you see that all across the board.

Casey was huge for me. He believed in me. He gave me a shot when most people thought I didn't belong in the NBA. And obviously management brought me here. I put the work in to work myself into a pretty good player, but at the end of the day the head coach has to have the wherewithal to throw you out there on the court in the fire. And some things happened in between. A couple injuries that allowed me to get some extra minutes. Then I just tried to build on each opportunity that I had and it worked out for me.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297