VanVleet said he is using his 2019 NBA championship with the Raptors and the New York Knicks’ 2026 NBA championship as motivation for his Rockets next season. “We kind of got pushed out [last season],” Van Vleet said. “We went from a fun AAU team to adding Kevin to a little favorite. The only bad thing about being a favorite is you get all of the flack — all of the criticism first. So, my experience is winning a championship in Toronto when nobody cared. Nobody paid us any attention. And they disrespected us the whole [season], and then we won. And that erased everything that happened previously. “The lead up to the moment doesn’t matter. We just watched the [New York] Knicks do it. Nobody thought they would win. Then they got there, dominated, and they were the best team ever. It’s just how the outside narrative works. But we got a lot of work to do.”
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: “We kind of got pushed out [last season],” Van Vleet …
