TORONTO — You could see the news spread and the joy with it. Once the official word filtered around, his teammates gathered around in a warm group hug. Then DeMar DeRozan made a point of coming over to embrace his old teammate. And the crowd? Well, the few that were in the building made sure they could be heard: “Freddy, Freddy, Freddy…”
Roughly 10 minutes before the ball went up on the Toronto Raptors game against the visiting Chicago Bulls at Scotiabank Arena came the announcement that Fred VanVleet would make the latest improbable step in his improbable journey from under-sized, under-recruited and un-drafted to NBA All-Star.
VanVleet was one of the seven players from the Eastern Conference chosen by the league’s coaches to join the five starters who earned their spot last week via a combined vote of fans, players and media.
He’ll be the seventh Raptor to be named an all-star. Fittingly he’ll make his debut in Cleveland on Feb. 20 — “Big Rockford,” VanVleet joked when we were chatting a few weeks back. It’s not Los Angeles or Las Vegas or New York City, but VanVleet is more about substance than style anyway.
Not surprisingly, he didn’t let the moment distract him from the work at hand. The surging Raptors were determined to steal a game from the Bulls, who have been at or near the top of the Eastern Conference all season.
The Raptors did it, extending their winning streak to four games with a 127-120 overtime victory that was sealed when VanVleet ripped a cross-court pass to a wide-open Gary Trent Jr. that the red-hot Raptors guard cashed with 15.3 seconds to play in the extra period.
The win improved the Raptors record to 27-23, while the Bulls slipped to 32-19. VanVleet celebrated his all-star nod in style, finishing with 21 points and nine rebounds — consistent with the 21.5 points and seven assists he’s been putting up all season.
The Raptors got 26 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists from Pascal Siakam who has been playing outstanding basketball for two straight months. There was some hope that it would be enough for him to earn. His second career all-star nomination, but he fell short. At this rate he might make All-NBA at season’s end though.
Trent Jr. — gunning to become the first Raptor to score 30 or more points in six straight games — finished with 16, but his key triple will make up for it.
DeRozan led the Bulls with 26 points, six rebounds and seven assists against his old team.
The Raptors dominated the offensive glass, pulling 22 misses off the rim to 12 by Chicago. That and the 17-12 edge in turnovers were critical as Toronto attempted 113 shots to 90 by Chicago.
VanVleet did his part to get the game into overtime. He hit a late three and a long pull-up two in the fourth quarter that gave the Raptors an eight-point lead with 4:31 to play as Toronto tried to break open a game that was closely contested for most of the night.
But it was a rare mistake by VanVleet proved costly. After fellow All-Star DeRozan tied the game with a 10-foot fadeaway with 47.8 second to play, VanVleet dribbled the ball off of his leg under pressure in traffic with 32.9 seconds left and the Bulls went up by two after Nikola Vucevic scored as the shot-clock expired. VanVleet made a good move to get a lay-up up on the rim with two seconds left and rookie Scottie Barnes sent the game into overtime with a put-back.
The Raptors host the Atlanta Hawks to wrap up a difficult stretch of five games in seven days that started with the triple-overtime marathon win in Miami on Saturday. They will finally get two days off consecutively on the weekend.
There will be a lot to celebrate, VanVleet’s accomplishment foremost.
His is a remarkable story that never gets old. Every new chapter builds the legend. The message is simple: Believe in yourself first and don’t waver. It’s easy to say, and it makes for a cool slogan — “Bet on Yourself” has been VanVleet’s — but it’s hard to live it day by day.
But when you do start from that premise and you’re willing to commit to an endless project of self-improvement on the simple belief that good things will happen, oh the places you can go.
In the same conversation I asked VanVleet what making the All-Star team would mean to him.
“I think this is more so about the story, to me,” he said. “If you know the story and follow the story, then to go from all the obstacles I had to overcome to be recognized as one of the top 24 [in the NBA is important],” he said.
“I can feel how I feel all day. I can feel like I’m a top 10 player. top 20 player, but to be stamped as that, to be recognized worldwide as an NBA All-Star, from undrafted from making the team as a 15th guy, I think that would mean a lot to me and to a lot of other people.”
Starting with his family. VanVleet was raised in a blended family after his father was killed in Rockford, a small city west of Chicago that is not for the meek. His stepfather, Joe Danforth, would drill him endlessly, his older brothers Darnell and JD would test him endlessly. Nothing came easily.
It served him well. When he arrived in Toronto nothing was assured and — if everyone is being honest — no one expected anything like this.
If the Raptors knew this was in the cards, they would have drafted him, right?
Instead, they gave him a shot to make the team out of training camp, but with point guards Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph and Delon Wright already on the roster, the most likely scenario for VanVleet was a run with the Raptors 905 in the G-League.
He did his share of that and did it so well he led them to the 2017 G-League title. But he wouldn’t let the Raptors or anyone else think that he was happy just to have a chance.
“I’ve always said this: He’s just got a specialness about him. It’s a special compete level. It’s a special feel for the game. It’s a special toughness. It’s some stuff like that that stands out,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “The first drill goes up [at his first training camp], and he goes right underneath Kyle [Lowry] 84 feet [from the hoop], like ‘I gotta make this team man.’ So, he starts proving it.”
He got a two-year deal at the rookie minimum and went to work. He played just 26 seconds in his first 16 games in 2016-17 and didn’t score his first bucket until his 19th game. He was not part of the rotation in the playoffs and didn’t earn his first NBA start until 17 games into his third season. He wasn’t a starter until his fourth season.
But VanVleet was proving himself to himself along the way. In his second season he led the bench mob as they became the best second unit in the NBA. In 2018-19 he put up 30 when he started for a short-handed Raptors team against Atlanta on the night of the NBA trade deadline. He helped lead the Raptors back from 0-2 against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2019 and earned a Finals MVP vote for his defence against Steph Curry in the NBA Finals. He scored a then-career playoff-high 22 points off the bench in the Raptors championship-deciding win in Game 6, 12 in the fourth quarter.
When he got a chance to start in 2019-20, he ran with it. That’s when he was convinced his underdog story had no upper limit.
“I think I averaged 17 a game or something like that [17.6] and I was kind (of the) third or fourth option and just finding my spots, but I had big games,” he said. “I could score 30 and I was like ‘okay, now I just got to figure out how can I do this consistently and if I can figure that part out, then I can see myself being included.’”
He’s included now. Part of the firmament. But he’s not done.
“Definitely not,” he said when we spoke about the possibility of him being named to the All-Star team. “Because this would only count for one, so you still gotta show up next year, and do it again. And I’m finding myself… like it’s been harder to take compliments and appreciate even less the good performances I’m having because this stuff is going so fast… and I got big dreams and big visions and just thinking ahead of what I want to do. I think that’s the part where greatness comes is being able to continue to do it over and over and over again.
“And eventually then we won’t be sitting here debating on or have to wonder if I’m an all-star whatever the case may be, it’ll be cemented.”
