Fred VanVleet is going after his team’s in-state rivals this week.
The Houston Rockets point guard VanVleet got shady with the San Antonio Spurs during the latest episode of his “Unguarded” podcast. During a discussion about the recent hype surrounding the No. 2 seed Spurs, VanVleet indicated that San Antonio was being overrated.
“We were a better team than them the last two years,” said VanVleet of the Spurs. “Have they had a playoff series? OK, so everybody slow the f–k down. It’s a marathon. Not a sprint.
“Yeah Wemby [Victor Wembanyama] is a alien,” VanVleet added. “[Stephon] Castle is a really good player. [Dylan] Harper looks like a good player … [De’Aaron] Fox was a great addition. They’re having a good year. But what’s the finish line though? It’s easy to say all this in the moment. Being 100, they beat our a– [this year]. But I don’t remember everybody taking these victory laps when we was just beating they a– [the last two years].”
The former All-Star VanVleet, who is out for this entire season due to a torn ACL, is referencing how the Rockets beat the Spurs 3-1 in the season series in each of the last two years. However this year, it is the Spurs who won the season series over the Rockets 3-1 (and also now sit 7.5 games ahead of the No. 3 seed Rockets in the standings).
San Antonio and Houston have a natural rivalry as fellow Texas teams who are both in the Southwest Division and who only sit less than 200 miles apart. But VanVleet is not exactly speaking from a position of strength right now, especially given Houston’s own struggles to look like a legitimate championship contender this season.
