The San Antonio Spurs suddenly look like one of the best teams in the league, which has people throwing them into contender conversations. A 49-18 record and four wins over the Oklahoma City Thunder will do that. Still, there’s a group of people watching this run and thinking that they might not be there yet.
The doubt isn’t just coming from fans either. Players around the league see it too. For instance, Fred VanVleet. Having won a championship with the Toronto Raptors, he understands the struggles and the level of effort it takes to get there.
And with the Raptors, it wasn’t easy. They went through years of strong regular seasons only to get lapped by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs. Knowing how regular-season success doesn’t always carry over into the playoffs, VanVleet says the Spurs are having a good year but wants to slow down the victory laps.
“Have they won a playoff series? Everybody slow the f*ck down. It’s a marathon. Not a sprint… Yeah Wemby is a alien. Castle is a really good player, Harper looks like a good player. They’re have 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 ass. But anybody in the media taking victory laps when we was just beating they ass.”
Fred VanVleet tells people to ‘slow the f*ck’ down on the Spurs hype 👀
“Have they won a playoff series? Everybody slow the f*ck down. It’s a marathon. Not a sprint… Yeah Wemby is a alien. Castle is a really good player, Harper looks like a good player. They’re have a good year… pic.twitter.com/5p92v0MfGC
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) March 14, 2026
