There won’t be a repeat of Fred VanVleet’s story so all Raptors fans should celebrate instead of hate

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It’s not impossible, but consider it unlikely we see a story like Fred VanVleet’s again. Certainly not in Toronto.

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All the pride of Rockford, Ill. has done is lead a smallish NCAA school to a near perfect season and other unexpected heights, before going on to set Toronto Raptors single-game franchise records for both points and assists, having earlier helped lead the Raptors to the NBA title with a monster Eastern Conference final series, followed by an NBA Finals performance good enough to earn him one Finals MVP vote.

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And that’s after no NBA team decided to draft him. 

No, it’s safe to say the Raptors won’t ever be able to top their decision to convince VanVleet to sign with them after the draft, then to keep him on the roster when final cut decisions were up in there. VanVleet did the rest, with help from the coaching and development staff of course, and what he’s accomplished is nothing short of remarkable.

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He toyed with an overmatched Charlotte Hornets team on Sunday on the way to 20 assists, wiping out a record that had stood since the earliest days of the Raptors, when another small guard, nicknamed Mighty Mouse, was controlling everything on the court. Damon Stoudamire’s 19 assists happened so long ago that big men Sharone Wright (look him up. He would have been really good, had he not suffered a career-changing injury), Oliver Miller and Zan Tabak also thrived for the Raptors that night.

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It’s always seemed quite odd to me how vocal a contingent of the Raptors’ fanbase is against VanVleet. Maybe he takes some shots you don’t like, or tries to do too much at times, but with all he’s accomplished stats-wise, and, more importantly, in helping get the franchise to heights it never previously approached, it’s just super strange to see all the vitriol. Maybe it’s just the awful internet amplifying a handful of out to lunch voices, but it seems like more than that. Earlier in his Toronto tenure he was a fan favourite:

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Anyway, if you’re keeping track, VanVleet has a 54-point and 20-assist game under his belt and is just the third Raptor with a 20-20 game, joining Chris Bosh (twice) and Popeye Jones, who did it with points and rebounds.

Maybe VanVleet sticks around on a new contract, or maybe he only has a few games left as a Raptor. Either way, if the franchise ever does a ring of honour or something similar for its former players, VanVleet will definitely be making the cut. Against all odds.

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AROUND THE RIM:

• Toronto needs to go at least 2-2 to finish at .500 or better. In the first 27 seasons in franchise history, 12 Raptors teams finished above .500 and the 2007-08 edition was the only 41-41 Raptors team. There have been 14 sub-.500 Raptors teams. Each .500 team has made the playoffs.
• Switching to Canadian basketball. Big congratulations to Toronto big man Zach Edey for dominating the NCAA this season and becoming the first Canadian to win a player of the year award (let alone a handful of them, as Edey has done). We’ll see what’s next for Edey. When I asked his former star teammate Jaden Ivey about his NBA prospects after a recent visit by Detroit, Ivey pointed out that Edey could even stay put another year in the NCAA (he didn’t really get into Edey’s NBA fit in a league that has made the big man a bit of an endangered species). Edey’s already proven useful for Nick Nurse’s Canadian national team and there’s little reason to think he couldn’t contribute on an NBA roster, even in a limited role. He will get punished on pick-and-rolls, but he can make opponents pay big-time at the other end and will rebound everything. “Whatever his goals are, whatever his dreams are, he’ll chase them,” Ivey said.
• On a more somber note, condolences to the family of Greg Francis, one of the most underrated Canadian players ever. Francis was dominant at Oakwood Collegiate in the late-1980s/early 1990s , to the point that by the time I started playing high school ball nearby in 1992-1993 all we heard about was his play and those Oakwood teams (led by Francis and later, O’Neil Kamaka). It’s commonplace now for Canadians to go on to the NCAA, but Francis was one of the trailblazers. He went to Fairfield in Connecticut and had a great career, even lighting up Vince Carter’s star-laden UNC Tar Heels for eight three-pointers in an NCAA tournament game no less. Had Fairfield prevailed, that performance would be considered on par with Steve Nash’s earlier upset win over Damon Stoudamire’s mighty Arizona team.

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THREE STARS VS. HORNETS

1 Fred VanVleet

2 Pascal Siakam (36, 7 and 7 on his birthday and doesn’t even get a mention above, sheesh)

3 O.G. Anunoby

Honourable mention: Svi Mykhailuk, Mark Williams, Scottie Barnes

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